America's first nude sculpture "The Greek Slave" by Hiram Powers 1844

The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers modeled 1841–43; carved 1846 located at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

The Greek Slave, the first publicly exhibited, life-size American sculpture depicting a fully nude white female figure, met with unprecedented popular and critical success. Arguably the most famous American sculpture ever, the Slave not only won Hiram Powers international acclaim but also enhanced the overseas reputation of American art and culture. After completing his first Greek Slave in 1844—now in the collection of Raby Castle, England—Powers produced five full-size replicas. William Wilson Corcoran purchased this marble, the first of those replicas, in 1851.

 

The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers modeled 1841–43; carved 1846 located at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

I spent two lovely weeks in our Nation's Capital Washington D C in Aug of 2007 for my Birthday. Although I had been to the Corcoran Museum before I remembered it as a lovely place that was not as overwhelming as the larger Art museums in D C. One of the treasures of the Corcoran is a marble Statue called " The Greek Slave" by 19th century American sculptor Hiram Powers. The beautiful sculpture was the first publicly exhibited nude statue in America by an American Artist. Please see an earlier post I did titled "America's first public nude painting 1794". Attitudes on nudity in late 18th century America had not change much 50 years latter in Mid 19th century America when the Greek Slave was exhibited.

The statue on display at the Düsseldorf Gallery in New York City.

In the late 18th century America's premier Architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe wrote; It is a foolish thing in an artist to chose a subject which he either dare not exhibit, or if he does expose it, which sacrifices his moral character at the shrine of his skill. And Great American Artist Charles Willson Peale confided to Latrobe, "Such subjects may be good to show artist, but in my opinion not very proper for exhibition. I like no art which can raise a blush on a lady's cheek. Although a controversial work of art it's popularity and beauty established the Greek Slave as one of America’s most celebrated works of art. Between 1847– 1851 a American tour of two versions of the sculpture, including the Corcoran’s, went around the eastern United States. Aware that the Slave’s nudity might provoke disapproval on the part of a conservative American art audience, Powers was careful to exhibit his marble with texts that stressed the subject’s “high moral and intellectual beauty.”







Powers himself described the subject of the work thus:



The Slave has been taken from one of the Greek Islands by the Turks, in the time of the Greek Revolution; the history of which is familiar to all. Her father and mother, and perhaps all her kindred, have been destroyed by her foes, and she alone preserved as a treasure too valuable to be thrown away. She is now among barbarian strangers, under the pressure of a full recollection of the calamitous events which have brought her to her present state; and she stands exposed to the gaze of the people she abhors, and awaits her fate with intense anxiety, tempered indeed by the support of her reliance upon the goodness of God. Gather all these afflictions together, and add to them the fortitude and resignation of a Christian, and no room will be left for shame.

The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers modeled 1841–43; carved 1846 located at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

When the statue was taken on tour in 1848, Miner Kellogg, a friend of the artist and manager of the tour put together a pamphlet to hand out to exhibition visitors. He provided his own description of the piece:



The ostensible subject is merely a Grecian maiden, made captive by the Turks and exposed at Constantinople, for sale. The cross and locket, visible amid the drapery, indicate that she is a Christian, and beloved. But this simple phase by no means completes the meaning of the statue. It represents a being superior to suffering, and raised above degradation, by inward purity and force of character. Thus the Greek Slave is an emblem of the trial to which all humanity is subject, and may be regarded as a type of resignation, uncompromising virtue, or sublime patience.

The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers modeled 1841–43; carved 1846 located at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Public reaction to the statue was mixed. When the work was first exhibited. The figure’s nudity increased its notoriety. In prudish 19th century America Powers work had two things going against it. It depicted a fully nude white woman and second a white woman as a "slave" all during a time of great unrest in America over the issues of Black slavery. Powers chose a subject inspired by Greece’s struggle for independence in the 1820s; many literary, artistic, and critical responses to the sculpture linked it to the ongoing debate over American slavery. But as the American Civil War neared, abolitionists began to take the piece as a symbol, and to compare it with "the Virginian Slave". The comparison was the subject of a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. The statue also inspired a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Abolitionist Maria White Lowell wrote that The Greek Slave "was a vision of beauty that one must always look back to the first time of seeing it as an era".





William Wilson Corcoran displayed the prized sculpture prominently in his Washington mansion, where it attracted enormous publicity and confirmed his reputation as a discerning collector. In Florence, Powers was overwhelmed by the demand for more full-size versions and busts. The sculpture’s popularity also permeated popular culture, inspiring everything from miniature reproductions and designs for chewing-tobacco tins to poetry and sheet music.





Powers made six replicas of the Raby Castle Greek Slave for sale to various collectors. One such variant is currently in the Smithsonian American Art Museum; another is in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.



When a copy was installed on the desk of the Governor in Vermont, Governor James Douglas ordered its removal as obscene, stating that schoolchildren might see it. Another copy resides in the Vermont State House. Yet another copy resides in Westervelt Warner Museum of American Art in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers modeled 1841–43; carved 1846 located at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.