Fisher Boy (Primary Title)
Hiram Powers, American, 1805 - 1873 (Artist)
Leader of the first wave of American sculptors to establish residency in Italy, Powers achieved enormous success with his mythological, allegorical, and ideal figures. Based in Florence, he had access to the region’s fine marble, skilled stonecutters, and enduring legacy of classicism. After modeling his sculptures in clay, Powers had them cast in plaster. Only his finest works, such as Fisher Boy, were carved in marble, accurately produced with the aid of a measuring device called a pointing machine.
Powers described Fisher Boy – one of the first fully nude male figures created by an American sculptor – as “a kind of Apollino, but…modern” youth, who holds a conch shell to his ear to listen for the “still small voice” of God. Alongside the artist’s well-known Greek Slave, an idealized female nude also imbued with a religious narrative, Fisher Boy created a popular sensation of London’s Great Exhibition of 1851.
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