![[The Greek Slave], Daguerreotype of Hiram Powers' Famous Sculpture, 1850s](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/dollc/images/view/b9e1bb3626b546c914e6bde611c9acabj/daniel-oliver-the-greek-slave-daguerreotype-of-hiram-powers-famous-sculpture-1850s.jpg)
[The Greek Slave]
Daguerreotype of Hiram Powers' Famous Sculpture, 1850s
Quarter-plate daguerreotype
3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches
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A rare and attractive early image of Hiram Powers’ “The Greek Slave,” arguably the most famous American sculpture of the 19th-century. After exhibiting the work in London in 1845, Powers...
A rare and attractive early image of Hiram Powers’ “The Greek Slave,” arguably the most famous American sculpture of the 19th-century.
After exhibiting the work in London in 1845, Powers produced five additional full-size versions in marble and exhibited them in the United States. Powers was inspired by Greece’s struggle for independence in the 1820s, but his work drew a clear parallel to American slavery. From the National Gallery of Art:
“The event that established The Greek Slave as one of America's most celebrated works of art was the 1847–1851 tour of two versions of the sculpture...around the eastern United States. Aware that the slave's nudity might provoke disapproval on the part of a conservative American audience, Powers was careful to supplement his exhibition with texts stressing the subject's ‘high moral and intellectual beauty.'"
While there are scores of stereoviews, CDVs, and other paper photographs of the Greek Slave, daguerreotypes of the sculpture are quite rare, with only a handful of examples in museum collections. The daguerreotype is a period-copy, and therefore shows the statue in its correct orientation as opposed to in reverse, as an original would be.
After exhibiting the work in London in 1845, Powers produced five additional full-size versions in marble and exhibited them in the United States. Powers was inspired by Greece’s struggle for independence in the 1820s, but his work drew a clear parallel to American slavery. From the National Gallery of Art:
“The event that established The Greek Slave as one of America's most celebrated works of art was the 1847–1851 tour of two versions of the sculpture...around the eastern United States. Aware that the slave's nudity might provoke disapproval on the part of a conservative American audience, Powers was careful to supplement his exhibition with texts stressing the subject's ‘high moral and intellectual beauty.'"
While there are scores of stereoviews, CDVs, and other paper photographs of the Greek Slave, daguerreotypes of the sculpture are quite rare, with only a handful of examples in museum collections. The daguerreotype is a period-copy, and therefore shows the statue in its correct orientation as opposed to in reverse, as an original would be.