CC0 · no rights reserved
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Hiram Powers often thought about giving up portrait busts to concentrate solely on his ideal sculptures. Some opportunities were too tempting to resist, however, as with the portrait of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Powers modeled the sculpture out of respect for the poet and as a valuable addition to his busts of notable people; the sitter’s brother and sister as well as many admirers of his poetry commissioned several replicas. This portrait is an example of Powers’s later work during the 1860s, when he modeled his busts after the classical Greek herm design, with a squared-off, tapering base.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineHenry Wadsworth Longfellow. modeled 1869. Hiram Powers, born Woodstock, VT 1805-died Florence, Italy 1873. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson. CC0.
