American Art Collaborative

“General Gaines . . . is quite a tall man, with a white head . . . He is quite a strange mixture of vanity, good sound sense, and nonsense . . . He has always a smile upon his face and is remarkably polite and good-natured to all around him.” Hiram Powers, 1841, in Richard P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1989-9
After the War of 1812, General Edmund Pendleton Gaines was promoted to major general and received a gold medal for his service. During the Mexican War, he was court-martialed for failing to obey orders, but the charges were dropped after he defended his patriotism. This bust was modeled at the request of General Memucan Hunt, a soldier and politician who also sat for Hiram Powers. After the sculpture was completed, Powers described how General Gaines “brought a bevy of ladies . . . to look at his bust . . . and did everything but gobble while they praised it.