American Art Collaborative

“So far as the likeness and finish of it are concerned, I have never surpassed it, nor could I improve it now, if I except some portions of the hair.” The artist quoted by Samuel Yorke Atlee, in Richard P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1989-9
In 1828, Hiram Powers enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cincinnati and modeled his first formal sculptures. Four-year-old Katherine Foote, the daughter of John Preston Foote, sat for him in the fall of that year. The cold weather hindered work in clay, so Powers made the initial bust in beeswax. He considered this portrait to be his very first completed sculpture, describing all previous attempts as being left “in the rough.” (Richard P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1989-91