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| All photographs are by Tony
Walsh for the "Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble" exhibition
at the Taft Museum of Art. |
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Hiram
Powers: Genius in Marble
May 18-August 12, 2007
Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio
Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble
Lynne Ambrosini and Rebecca Reynolds
Cincinnati: Taft Museum of Art, 2007
88 pages; 78 illustrations; 77 color, 1 b/w; Selected bibiliography
Cost: $15.02
ISBN number: 0-915577-32-1 |
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Cincinnati is deservedly proud
of her Artists;… more broad rays of Genius have flashed from
the altar there erected to the Graces, than can be boasted of by the
proudest city of the New World…Powers alone will immortalize
Cincinnati…
Cincinnati Daily Gazette 19, no. 5646 (Oct. 1, 1845) |
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Last summer
there was a stunning exhibition of marble and plaster sculpture by
the American expatriate to Italy, Hiram Powers (1805-1873), at the
Taft Museum of Art, co-curated by Lynne D. Ambrosini, chief curator,
and Rebecca A.G. Reynolds, an independent scholar. This was the first
major monographic exhibition of the work of America's greatest sculptor
of the nineteenth century. Although the title gives no indication
of it, the exhibition focused on work that had an association with
the Cincinnati, either because it was created there or commissioned
by local residents. The Queen City was Powers' adopted hometown after
moving there with his family in 1818 at the age of twelve. Powers
spent fourteen years in Cincinnati before leaving for two and a half
years in Washington, D.C., followed by a permanent move to Florence,
Italy. Powers was the first American sculptor to achieve widespread
international fame, and the foundation of his renown is The Greek
Slave (1834), known by the original plaster and six marble replicas.
It was the star of the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851 and some
of the versions toured the United States for years in highly popular,
fee-based exhibitions. Powers also became known for his mechanical
ingenuity. Impatient with the three-step process of sculpting (clay
model, original plaster, marble), he carved directly in plaster, inventing
his own tools for the purpose. Others then widely used his inventions. |
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Because the exhibition had a local
focus, it did not travel nationally. Three areas of inquiry received
special emphasis: Powers' development and patronage in Cincinnati;
his mature work as a Neoclassical portraitist and delineator of allegorical
subjects, as seen through his sculpture for patrons in the southwest
Ohio region; and the innovative sculptural techniques evident in his
extraordinarily refined marble pieces distinguished by tension between
idealism and realism. |
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The exhibition was mounted in five
rooms on the second floor of the historic home museum (the Taft Museum
of Art was once called Belmont, the home of patron Nicholas Longworth).
It featured twenty-five marble busts, eleven plaster works, two Parianware
figures, and one pigmented wax and clay piece. Most of these came
from Ohio collections, such as the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Toledo
Museum of Art, the Dayton Art Institute, and the Taft itself, but
also from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Understandably but
lamentably absent were life-size marble figures such as Powers' The
Greek Slave (designed 1841-43 and carved in 1870-73, Yale University
Art Gallery and other museums) and Eve Disconsolate (also known
as Paradise Lost) (modeled 1858/59-60, carved about 1872-77,
Cincinnati Art Museum). These works are too fragile and heavy to travel. |
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The rooms were painted in colors
popular in the nineteenth century, such as federal-period blue and
gold or yellow ochre, and also in the cinnamon red that Powers thought
would best enhance his sculptures, as he wrote in letters to his friend
and patron Nicholas Longworth. The exhibition introduced the viewer
to Powers, wearing his studio cap and apron, through an enlargement
of an undated, oval albumen print made by his son, Longworth Powers
(fig. 1). Below the reproduction was the artist's signature and three
quotations proclaiming Powers a genius. This was the word used repeatedly
to describe the sculptor, by such writers as Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Henry T. Tuckerman, and C. Edwards Lester; hence, the title of the
exhibition. |
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The first room, "Powers and His
Beginnings," featured versions of The Greek Slave, Powers'
best known full figure, including a marble bust from the Toledo Museum
of Art and a small marble copy of the figure approximately 21 inches
tall, ca. 1850-70 (fig. 2). These were displayed in front of a wall
mural enlargement of an engraving by R. Thew depicting The Greek
Slave in a painting gallery surrounded by viewers, from Cosmopolitan
Art Journal 2, no. 1 (Dec., 1857). The circular positioning of
these three images, all with their heads turned to the left, was clever.
The bust, on the left, even with downcast eyes, seems to look in the
direction of the engraving on the back wall where the Greek slave
appears to glance at the small figure on the right which, in turn,
suggests anticipation of the gallery visitor. It is a pity that a
full-size original of The Greek Slave—the star—is
missing; one could say that the rest of the display is merely peripheral.
Nevertheless, the supporting materials still convey a compelling narrative. |
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In a glass case were two large daguerreotypes
of the statue (front and rear views, both 1853, Cincinnati Art Museum)
by Abel Fletcher and an engraving from 1874 by Alonzo Chappel of the
sculpture, a scrapbook of clippings about the sculpture (1847-49)
compiled by Powers' daughter Louisa, and various publications about
the piece, including two pamphlets by Miner Kellogg (who served as
agent for the national tour), Powers' Statue of the Greek Slave
(1848) and Vindication of Hiram Powers' in the "Greek Slave"
Controversy (1849), as well as Justice to Hiram Powers, Addressed
to the Citizens of New Orleans (1848). (These are listed in the
checklist to the exhibition but not in the bibliography of the catalogue.
Apparently, in order to save costs on the catalogue, the institution
decided to list in the bibliography only publications that the authors
cited at least three times in their essays; others mentioned just
once or twice in footnotes were left out of the bibliography—an
odd and unfortunate editorial choice.) On another wall was an albumen
print (ca. 1880-1900) of The Greek Slave from the Cincinnati
Art Museum. (The date of this was not provided on the wall label but
was in the catalogue.) One of the most interesting elements in this
section of the exhibition was an enlargement of the outlines of sarcognomy
(1854), reproduced from Charles Colbert's book, A Measure of Perfection:
Phrenology and the Fine Arts in America (1997). Professor J. Rhodes
Buchanan coined the term "sarcognomy" in the 1840s to denote
a therapeutic science of the relationship between body and brain,
believing that the evolving, cutaneous surface not only possesses
a physiological characteristic but also psychological powers. The
sculptor was fascinated by phrenology as well, and took exact measurements
of his sitters, whom he almost always modeled from life, and never
from daguerreotypes or photographs. As celebrated as The Greek
Slave was, it was also the subject of heated controversy because
of its nudity, despite the fact the Powers tried to mitigate such
concern in advance by positioning the slave's left hand in front of
her pubic area. Critical remarks about the sculpture's relative immorality
abounded, and one wall label featured scathing remarks from the New
York Mirror (1845), Fraser's Magazine (1851), The Crayon
(1859), the Edinburgh Political and Literary Journal (1851),
and the Encyclopedia of Comedy (1899). |
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The large second room, with gold walls,
was divided into two overlapping spaces (fig. 3). [ill. # 16] The
first section, "Almost a Buckeye," traced Powers' roots
in Ohio (the buckeye is the state tree), where he moved with his family
at the age of twelve. In a wall-mounted case near the entrance on
the right were a sketch attributed to Miner Kellogg, one of Powers'
lifelong friends, of the simple log cabin that was Powers' first residence
in the state (ca. 1830) and a large French book on anatomy (a translation
of Sarlandière's Systematized Anatomy from 1835), inscribed
to Powers by book dealers. These men were Cincinnati supporters who
gave the sculptor the useful publication on the eve of his departure
for the east coast in 1836. On the adjoining wall was a reproduction
of an engraving (n.d.) of the young Powers in profile by Pierre Jean
Edmonds Castan (after Peyton Symmes), and a titillating broadside
attributed to Powers, printed in ink and watercolor, advertising the
"Infernal Regions" (1832) at the Western Museum where Powers
had created automated figures for sensational displays. Powers' work
for the Luman Watson Clock Company, where he improved machinery for
cutting clock wheels and simplified a design to produce more accurate
wooden clockworks, is referenced in the exhibition with a case containing
a Groaner shelf clock (about 1825), a closed city directory (1829)
with a reproduction for an advertisement for the Luman Watson Clock
Company beside it, wood-movement clockworks for the Groaner, and a
hollow-column shelf clock. |
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The other half of this room, titled
"Seizing a Likeness," displays a reproduction of Nicholas
Longworth's residence from Harper's Weekly (1858). Lawyer,
landowner, and vintner, Longworth was one of Powers' most important
patrons, and lived in the Baum-Longworth-Sinton-Taft House, which
became the Taft Museum of Art in 1932. In a case were the earliest
examples of Powers' sculpture, including a wax and clay head of artist,
Miner Kilbourne Kellogg (1828), and two plaster pieces, a head of
the child Catherine (Kitty) Amelia Foote (modeled about 1828) and
a death mask (1838) of Powers' first child, James Gibson Powers, who
passed away at the age of four. There was also an oval daguerreotype
(1857) of the bust of Ginevra by William Southgate Porter.
This reproduction might have been better placed in a subsequent room
where two busts of Ginevra were displayed. On the wall was
a photograph of the interior foyer of the Bishop House before 1924,
where the original plaster bust of the Reverend Dr. Robert Hamilton
Bishop (1834) once rested. |
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The overlapping area between the two
sections of this large room featured eleven busts on pedestals, mostly
of distinguished male leaders; five of them were on black columns,
four on brown plinths, and a plaster in a case was on a white base.
The variety of pedestals and varying pedestal heights, although somewhat
unusual in museum exhibitions, helped with the flow of the show. The
curators did extensive research into the type of pedestals that Powers
used for his work, which varied depending on the subject and style
of any given bust's truncation. Although Powers preferred certain
heights, the exhibition designer, Mark Rohling, brought them down
slightly for the museum setting. One of the most enjoyable aspects
here was the fact that three marble busts were placed in the middle
of the gallery with ample room to view the pieces in the round, as
Powers would have desired. First is the bust of jurist, statesman,
and diplomat Alphonso Taft (modeled 1869, carved 1869-70) which is
supplemented by the original plaster and working model of Taft close
to a wall nearby. The second portrait bust, Judge Jacob Burnet (modeled
1837, carved 1842), from the University of Cincinnati, is superb masterpiece
of naturalism with its wrinkles, moles, sagging skin, thin, set lips,
and tense throat muscles (fig. 4). It is a true likeness of the imposing
judge known as "The Black Hornet." Finally, there is a bust
of Powers' wife, Elizabeth Gibson Powers (modeled about 1859, cast
and finished after 1859). As was the case with the daguerreotype of
Ginevra, it might have made more sense if the carte-de-visite
of Elizabeth Powers was displayed in closer proximity to the bust,
but it might have been awkward to mount a wall case just for this
small image. As a compromise, the curators placed a reproduction of
a period photograph of Elizabeth Powers on the plaster's label. Object
labels make the Cincinnati connections to Powers clear. Powers modeled
the bust of Burnet from life in Cincinnati and carved it later in
Florence; Powers met his wife in Cincinnati; and Taft was the father-in-law
of Anna Sinton who later lived in Longworth's home. |
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Other portraits on display were those
of Ohio's first millionaire, Nicholas Longworth (modeled 1834 and
1849, carved 1849-50), George Washington (modeled 1838-44, carved
1859), Benjamin Franklin (modeled 1848-51, carved between 1851 and
1873), state legislator and member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Robert Todd Lytle (modeled 1835 and 1849, carved 1850), banker James
Gilmore (1865), wife of the minister to the German Empire, Alice Key
Pendleton (1870), and U.S. Chargé d'Affairs to Sardinia, Robert
Wickliffe, Jr. (modeled about 1847, carved 1857). Again, wall texts
and labels reveal ties to the Cincinnati area. The Young Men's Mercantile
Library Association of Cincinnati requested a purchase from Powers'
studio that was suitable to the character of the institution, and
the sculptor suggested the bust of Washington; he had executed at
least twenty-five such works because of popular demand. Similarly,
he made over fourteen portraits of Franklin, and a local physician
bought one of them. Acquaintances from Cincinnati, Lytle and Powers
became close friends when they were working in Washington, D.C. Gilmore
also knew Powers in the Queen City, and visited him in Florence, where
he sat for his portrait. Pendleton's husband was only a child when
Powers left for Italy; this was a rare instance when Powers likely
created a bust without a live model. Wickliffe hailed from Lexington,
Kentucky and developed a close relationship with the sculptor in Florence.
Of special note on the labels was the identification of carvers from
Powers' studio; much of this was the result of new research. Scholar
Richard Wunder had already established those names over thirty years
ago, but it is unusual to credit the carvers along with the "genius."
Visitors could use the knowledge to compare work by Powers' two master
carvers. Powers had assistants who specialized in hair, beards, etc. |
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The curators included extra visual
materials to provide context for the sculptures. Near the bust of
Lytle was a photograph of the work in a hallway of the Lytle Mansion
(1903) where it stood for many years. Next to the bust of John Quincy
Adams was an undated copy of a poem by Adams (1837) in praise of Powers,
written in an unknown hand. One measure of Powers' immense popularity
during this time was a steamboat named after him (1848-53), featured
on the wall in a reproduction of a color lithograph by Henry Lewis
from Das Illustrirte Mississippithal (Düsseldorf, 1854-57).
There had also been a steamboat named The Greek Slave (1849-57)! |
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Perhaps the most thought-provoking
room (actually, the back portion of the second space) was the recreation
of "The Sculptor's Studio," against a taupe background (fig.
5). On the back wall was an enlarged illustration of Powers' Florence
studio interior from Harper's Weekly (1873), misidentified
on a wall label as a photo enlargement. At the rear of the image is
a tent showing the smithy where Powers produced his own sculptural
tools. In front of this "mural" was an actual table featuring
three busts of The Greek Slave (a plaster from 1846 that retains
metal-plug work points and seam lines of the mold), and marbles from
1848 and 1858, the original plaster and working model of Anna B. Sinton
(modeled 1870) on a stand by itself in the corner, two busts on a
table to the right (two versions of Portrait of a Lady, one
in plaster and one in marble, both 1860), and three busts on a shelf
mounted on the wall above (a plaster of Fisher Boy, a marble
of Paradise Lost or Eve Disconsolate, and a plaster
and working model bust of a Alma Hammond L'Hommedieu, the oldest living
member of Christ Church in Cincinnati, modeled about 1871). Just as
in the engraving, one of the pieces on the shelf was turned to the
wall, a brilliant touch. This was Paradise Lost, best seen
from behind to showcase Eve's gently twisted locks. |
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On the lower shelves of the tables and the floor
were modern sculptor's tools, such as a pointing machine, heavy mallets,
coarse chisels, rasps, files, pumice, an armature for building up
clay portraits, and a mold for casting plaster, loaned by five studios,
four of which are in Massachusetts: Skylight Studios, master carver
Reno Pisano, Margaret Cassidy Manship (daughter-in-law of sculptor
Paul Manship), and the late Walker Hancock. Although these items are
mostly contemporary, such tools have changed little over the last
century. Their inclusion certainly enhanced the studio environment.
To the right of the table and shelf was a reproduction of a demonstration
of sculptors working taken from a page of Francesco Carradori's Elementary
Instructions for Students of Sculpture. Unfortunately, the original
date of this publication—1802—was not given; the tag line
read that this came from the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2002, the year
of the book's reprint. On a modeling stand in the corner was the original
plaster and working model bust of Anna B. Sinton that had been painted
posthumously by an unknown hand. Sculptor, collector, and independent
scholar Theodore Gantz, who found the piece in a flea market, gave
it to the museum, which conserved the piece. Beside the bust was a
photograph of the piece the way it looked before cleaning. |
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To the left of this recreation were
displays of additional sculptor's tools as well as more personal mementos
from Powers' family. In addition to an original note of payment for
the bust of Taft from January of 1870, there were fifteen of Powers'
tools. A nearby reproduction of an undated photograph by the Alinari
brothers shows marble quarrying in Carrara, the source of most of
Powers' high-quality marble, "pure, immortal, and discreetly
sensuous," as described by the curators on the label. Another
photographic reproduction presents Powers' family sitting in front
of his studio in their Florence residence (1856). In a case beside
this was a mold for a positive cast of a child's hand (1851), the
first cast of daughter Luly's hands (1839), a marble version of this
most famous hand sculpture by an American artist in the Victorian
era (between 1839 and 1844), Powers' studio cap, and a plaster cast
of Powers' right hand and wrist. Such poignant and personal items
added a touching element to the display. Nearby was a reproduction
of an unidentified type of photograph from the Cincinnati Art Museum
of showing a studio, possibly that of Longworth Powers. |
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The fourth room, called "Ideal Subjects,
or Fancy Parlor Pieces," was a small octagonal space with two
doorways, featuring seven marble pieces against cinnamon red walls
(fig. 6). Five busts were placed atop fluted columns that were slightly
distracting with their white centers but gold tops and bottoms. As
one entered the gallery, to the left were Ginevra (1839-1841)
and Psyche (1851-53). To the right were Ginevra (a second
version, created by 1873), Proserpine (1844), and Charity
(modeled 1867-71, carved 1871) (fig.7). I would have preferred to
have seen four depictions of Ginevra side by side—the
two busts along with the daguerreotype of the bust from the first
room and a carte-de-visite from the last room—so that
I could compare and contrast all three images and more closely observe
the changes that Powers made to hair and clothing. One could argue,
however, that Powers was less interested in the actual subjects of
his works than the formal qualities, and that the two were explorations
of form rather than a mythological character. To avoid the "ring
around the bathtub" type of installation, two busts were mounted
on small shelves well above the works on pedestals. These were Paradise
Lost (1859-62; carved 1873, Dayton Art Institute) and Fisher
Boy (1849-1870); both featured nearby photographic reproductions
of the full figures (fig. 8). It was a pity that these pieces were
so high; Powers would have wanted them to be seen at eye level. He
usually specified the proper way to display his busts, recommending
that single light be placed so that the shadow of the nose stops at
the upper lip (35). All of the other pieces (save those in the recreated
studio) were displayed according to this specification, and masterfully
lit by Mark Allen. Once more, labels explained the Cincinnati connections
of these pieces, except for Fisher Boy and Paradise Lost,
although the full figure of the latter is in the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The first public exhibition of Ginevra took place in Longworth's
home. Director of the Western Art-Union, Cincinnatian Charles Stetson,
ordered the bust of Psyche as a gift for his wife. Other local
civic leaders bought the sculptor's work, too. Reuben Springer commissioned
Proserpine, Powers' most popular piece, from the artist. And
entrepreneur, Henry Probasco, who owned the city's largest hardware
business, requested a new bust of Charity while visiting Powers'
studio abroad. |
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In the last room, a small space painted gold,
the "Epilogue" featured four works representative of Powers'
career and the end of his life. This included an enlargement of a
drawing or engraving (medium not identified) from Harper's Weekly
(1873) depicting the late Powers and his melancholic wife, who always
longed to return to her native Cincinnati, leaning on a windowsill
in Florence. In a nearby case were three stereographic views of busts
of Mrs. Powers and George Washington (both 1870) and a tomb of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, all by the Powers Frères. Also in the case
were Parianware reproductions of The Greek Slave, a larger
one from 1848-1900 and a smaller one dating between 1849 and 1930.
Additionally, there were three cartes-des-visite, all by Powers'
son, Longworth Powers (all ca. 1868): one of Powers, one of Ginevra,
and one turned over to show the back stamp of L. Powers/ Villino Powers/
Porta Romana/ Firenze. There was also a 1934 exhibition catalogue
from the Cincinnati Art Museum, from a show that displayed work by
both Powers and painter Joseph Oriel Eaton. While these items do not
work together effectively to tell a story (the connection between
Browning and Powers is not made clear, for instance), they are all
interesting pieces of material culture. |
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On the left wall was a reproduction of a photograph
(type and date not identified) of Longworth Powers with a photography
cart. Also on view was a small reproduction (1865) of The Greek
Slave in a glass bell jar, the kind statue that would have been
proudly displayed in a Victorian parlor. There was an original plaster
working model of a bust of Charlotte Frances Frederica Seymour, Countess
Spencer (1859), an ancestor of Princess Diana. The entire piece
was later painted in imitation of variegated marble to suit changing
tastes; the current local owner, Theodore Gantz has left it in that
state. This was a nice complement to the bust of Anna Sinton, which
had been painted in a similar fashion and also discovered by Gantz,
but the piece has no historical Cincinnati ties. As in the case of
the four images of Ginevra scattered throughout the exhibition,
it was a shame that the plaster and the marble of Anna Sinton were
separated; this would have been a rare opportunity to compare the
two side by side. The curators might have tucked it away in a less
prominent position in the studio environment because, although it
has been conserved, it seemed as though it were coated with a protective
layer of shellac which somewhat marred the original beauty of the
plaster. Also, it appears that the pointing nails were removed. If
left intact, this bust would have been a better teaching tool about
the process of sculpting. Also in this room was a photograph of that
plaster of Anna Sinton, near the marble busts of Sinton and her father
David (both carved by Antonio Ambuchi in 1872), who had sat for Powers
in while on a Grand Tour of Europe in 1870. Anna's bust sat atop a
pink column, the only original pedestal in the exhibition. David's
herme-style bust rested on a suitable tapered pedestal owned by the
Taft. |
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In conclusion, despite a few quibbles about the
separation of versions of the same works of art, the placement of
two busts too high, and some missing dates and information about photographs
on labels, this was a beautifully conceived and executed exhibition.
It was especially noteworthy since there are relatively few shows
on nineteenth-century sculpture because of the fragility and weight
of larger works, and the often prohibitive costs of shipping and installation. |
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The full-color exhibition catalogue, Hiram
Powers:Genius in Marble features essays by the co-curators. Lynne
Ambrosini's masterful essay, ""Pure, White Radiance":
The Ideology of Marble in the Nineteenth Century," is a lyrically
written and very insightful discussion of the preference for white
marble in nineteenth-century sculpture. Ambrosini argues persuasively
that marble was the privileged material of sculptors for nearly three
quarters of a century, in the United States especially, for three
reasons—it was the model provided by antique statuary, it connoted
immortality, and artists praised its unmarred perfection. To underscore
her points, Ambrosini (and co-curator, Rebecca Reynolds) combed nineteenth-century
publications, documenting her pioneering scholarship with 203 careful
footnotes. For instance, in a Cosmopolitan Art Journal from
1860, Ambrosini found a comment by Julia Layton about the loss of
surface detail in marble sculptures at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Layton suggested that bronze, then, should be the "aesthetic
type of immortality" rather than marble (15). As Ambrosini noted,
Layton's recommendation was one of the isolated voices amid a chorus
of acclaim for "undying marble." With clear subheadings,
Ambrosini explores marble's Grecian prestige in terms of Johann Joachim
Winckelmann's advocacy, the quest for (and impossibility of finding)
top grade marble in the United States, the paradoxical associations
of marble with both death and immortality (with an exploration of
the once-ubiquitous phrases "marble immortality" and "living
marble"), marble idealism and white purity, the nude in marble,
and tensions and complications in impure marble. In this last section
about the veiled and explicit eroticism of sculptural female nudes,
Ambrosini notes that: "Marble sculpture's purity was a tease"
(21). |
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Reynolds' essay, ""Almost a Buckeye":
Hiram Powers and Cincinnati, His Adopted Hometown," is a well-researched
and amply footnoted exploration of Powers' Cincinnati ties that corrects
earlier erroneous assertions. It is slightly marred by sloppy editing.
For instance, lightning is misspelled as lightening, the passive voice
is present in "a fashionable carriage was driven by a skeleton"
(32), and the incorrect phrase "off of" is present (33).
Reynolds also penned an informative four-paragraph entry on "Hiram
Powers's Sculptural Process," a brief but accurate chronology
(Powers' early years in Cincinnati had been confused in other accounts);
and detailed catalogue entries on forty-two works by Powers. Because
one of the goals of the exhibition was to examine Powers' innovative
sculptural techniques, that section could have been expanded. Also,
since the focus of the show was on Powers' connections to Cincinnati,
it would have been logical to begin the catalogue with Reynolds' essay
on this topic rather than Ambrosini's more general examination of
the ideology of marble, which could have been a feature of a number
of catalogues on nineteenth-century sculpture. However, Ambrosini
is the senior scholar and she was the driving force behind the exhibition. |
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Although reproductions of the full figures of
Fisher Boy and Paradise Lost (originals not in the exhibition),
as well as images of the busts and copies of The Greek Slave
are included here, surprisingly, there is no reproduction of an original
full figure of The Greek Slave, the central piece around which
the show is organized. Neither are there reproductions of the stereographs
featured in the show, of the busts of Elizabeth Powers and George
Washington and the tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. However, there
is a reproduction of something not in the show. The frontispiece to
Reynolds' essay is a photo gallery (forty-eight images, possibly albumen
prints) of Powers' sculpture and Powers himself by Longworth Powers,
depicting pieces such as Prosperine, The Greek Slave,
Faith, Hope, Charity, California, Clylie,
Ginevra, America, and Diana from various angles.
This could have been an enhancement to the exhibition. |
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As a whole, the publication is valuable as the
first major exhibition catalogue on Powers. However, its physical
appearance is disappointingly cramped. The margins are about half
an inch and the font is ten-point. There are no full-page plates (except,
curiously, the image of Powers and his wife at the window from Harper's
Weekly), and there is little space surrounding the beautifully
photographed sculpture. Further, the paper is glossy but not high
quality. It was probably an institutional and financial decision to
produce such a slim volume about the size of a magazine, but the length
of the text demanded more room. Such a tight-fisted treatment is a
disservice to the scholarship, the exhibition, and the sculpture itself.
Further, production problems meant that the study was not ready in
time for the opening; it only became available when the show was almost
two-thirds through its run. Nevertheless, the catalogue is an important
contribution to the literature on Powers, complementing and updating
Richard Wunder's exhaustive monograph (1974) and Donald Reynolds'
dissertation on Powers' ideal sculpture (1977). The publication is
also certainly an enhancement of our understanding of nineteenth-century
American sculpture. |
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Theresa Leininger-Miller
Associate Professor, Art History
University of Cincinnati
theresa.leininger[at]uc.edu |
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© 2008–9 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
and Theresa Leininger-Miller. All Rights Reserved. |
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