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
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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 (164 items)

Hiram Powers, Louisa Powers' Hand, 1839, plaster and fabric trim, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.128
Louisa Powers’ Hand
Date1839
plaster and fabric trim
On view
Hiram Powers, Anstiss Derby Rogers Wetmore, modeled 1843, plaster and metal pins, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.99
Anstiss Derby Rogers Wetmore
Datemodeled 1843
plaster and metal pins
On view
Hiram Powers, John Slidell, modeled 1840, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.26
John Slidell
Datemodeled 1840
plaster
On view
Hiram Powers, Alma Hammond L'Hommedieu, 1872 or 1873, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson, 1968.155.38
Alma Hammond L’Hommedieu
Date1872 or 1873
plaster
On view

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