Hiram Powers, Anna Hazard Barker Ward, modeled 1837-1838, plaster, 24 5⁄8 x 18 7⁄8 x 11 3⁄4 in. (62.6 x 47.9 x 29.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.35
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Anna Hazard Barker Ward
- Artist
- Date
- modeled 1837-1838
- Location
- Dimensions
- 24 5⁄8 x 18 7⁄8 x 11 3⁄4 in. (62.6 x 47.9 x 29.9 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- plaster
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Portrait female — Ward, Anna Hazard Barker — bust
- Portrait female — Ward, Samuel Gray, Mrs. — bust
- Dress — historic — classical dress
- Study — sculpture model
- Object Number
- 1968.155.35
Artwork Description
In 1837, Boston-born Anna Hazard Barker toured Europe with friends. While there, she met her future husband Samuel Gray Ward, who worked for a British banking firm. When she visited Hiram Powers’s studio in Florence, he offered to model her portrait free of charge. He was still working on this when Anna returned to America, and so he asked her to have a cast taken of her face and sent to him for reference. Powers felt that her features embodied the essence of womanhood, and her portrait was the inspiration for his first ideal bust. The artist’s second daughter was born while he was working on this piece, and named Anna Barker Powers in honor of Powers’s friendship with Mrs. Ward.
