Greek Slave

Hiram Powers, Greek Slave, modeled 1843, plaster and metal pins, 26 141810 34 in. (66.845.627.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.45
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Greek Slave
Artist
Date
modeled 1843
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
26 141810 34 in. (66.845.627.3 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson
Mediums
Mediums Description
plaster and metal pins
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure female — nude
  • State of being — other — enslaved
  • Study — sculpture model
  • History — ancient — Greece
  • Figure female — waist length
Object Number
1968.155.45

Artwork Description

Hiram Powers (1805-73) was among the first American sculptors to establish an international reputation, rising to fame in the late 1840s with his Greek Slave, a life-size marble sculpture of a chained, nude woman. Few could have predicted Powers' incredible success from his humble beginnings on a farm in Ohio or his time in Washington, DC, where he made somber plaster portraits of four early presidents and other luminaries. Powers moved to Florence, Italy, with his wife and young children in 1837, lured there by its abundance of fine marble and highly skilled stone carvers. He quickly realized there was much to gain from making ideal compositions of nude figures drawn from literary, biblical, and historical themes. Powers set up a studio dividing labor among several assistants and, using the latest technologies such as the pointing machine, to create numerous replicas of his most popular designs in marble. Although he always intended to return to the United States, Powers remained abroad until his death and became an unofficial ambassador for American culture. He was a central figure in the expatriate colony in Florence, where he masterfully marketed his work to British nobles and American collectors touring Europe.

Greek Slave became the most famous sculpture of the nineteenth century and propelled the artist, Hiram Powers (1805-73), to international stardom. The work was so provocatively lifelike that certain exhibition venues in the United States required that men and women view the sculpture separately. Powers justified the sculpture's full nudity by claiming his work depicted historic events: a Greek woman, captured by Ottoman forces during the War of Independence, had been stripped and chained for sale at a slave market in Constantinople. American viewers in the 1840s and '50s, many of whom had never before seen a sculpture of a nude woman, felt licensed to admire the Greek Slave because she was "clothed all over with sentiment." Powers encouraged this interpretation of his work and indicated his subject's modesty by turning the figure's gaze demurely downward and including a cross and locket as symbols of Christian piety and faithfulness to a remembered loved one. The Greek Slave was almost immediately associated with slavery in the United States, where abolitionists used images of it to promote their cause. Powers produced six full-scale marble examples of the Greek Slave, each considered an original work of art. Much to Powers' dismay, the sculpture became so popular that countless unauthorized imitations of Greek Slave were also made.

Works by this artist (81 items)

East Baltimore Documentary Survey Project
Dateca. 1975
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Linda Rich, Afternoon Break, St. Elizabeth's School, 1980, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1983.63.1113, © 1975, George Jadowski
Afternoon Break, St. Elizabeth’s School
Date1980
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Linda Rich, Before the ground breaking ceremony for Santoni's market, 1977-1980, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project, 2020.68.3
Before the ground breaking ceremony for Santoni’s market
Date1977-1980
gelatin silver print
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

David Levinthal, Untitled from the series Hitler Moves East, 1975, printed 2015, Pigment print on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 2017.32.168, © 1975, David Levinthal
Untitled from the series Hitler Moves East
Date1975, printed 2015
Pigment print on paper
Not on view
David Levinthal, Untitled from the series Hitler Moves East, 1974, printed 2015, Pigment print on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 2017.32.156, © 1974, David Levinthal
Untitled from the series Hitler Moves East
Date1974, printed 2015
Pigment print on paper
Not on view
David Levinthal, Untitled from the series Hitler Moves East, 1974, printed 2015, Pigment print on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 2017.32.154, © 1974, David Levinthal
Untitled from the series Hitler Moves East
Date1974, printed 2015
Pigment print on paper
Not on view