born June 29, 1805, Woodstock, Vt., U.S.
died June 27, 1873, Florence, Italy
U.S.-born Italian sculptor.
He worked as an artist-assistant in a waxworks museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, then moved to Washington, D.C., where he modeled busts of such figures as Andrew Jackson (1834). In 1837 he settled permanently in Florence. He attracted international notoriety with his marble Greek Slave (1843), an image of a nude young woman in chains, which caused a sensation at London's Crystal Palace Exposition in 1851. An artist of outstanding technical ability, he was one of the most popular sculptors of his time.
"Greek Slave," marble statue by Hiram Powers, 1843; in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, ...
By courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.