Artwork Details
- Title
- Louisa Powers’ Hand
- Artist
- Date
- 1839
- Location
- Dimensions
- 5 x 2 1⁄2 x 1 1⁄2 in. (12.7 x 6.4 x 3.8 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- plaster and fabric trim
- Keywords
- Figure
- Study — sculpture model
- Figure female — fragment — hand
- Study — anatomical study
- Object Number
- 1968.155.128
Artwork Description
Hiram Powers’s first daughter, Louisa Greenough Powers, was born in 1838. Powers made many casts of his daughter’s hands and forearms, including Louisa Powers’ Hand, taken when she was one year old. This cast was displayed in the artist’s studio on a luxurious green cushion. From this, Powers modeled a sculpture of a small hand resting on an open sunflower, a symbol of devotion. The piece became so popular that clients requested replicas for many years after the first version was completed. The later Loulie’s Hand, modeled in 1851, was commissioned by James Lenox, a New York merchant and philanthropist.
“[The cast] is as fresh and pure as the day you cast and gave it to me.” Louisa Greenough Powers, 1860, in Richard P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1989-91