Lot 47: HIRAM POWERS (1805-1873)

"THE FISHER BOY", A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE signed " H. POWERS Sculp. 1846 " 57 3/8 in. (144.8 cm.) high PROVENANCE Robert Stephenson, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England (died 1859) Clara Jessup Moore, London (circa 1880) Count Gustaf von Rosen and Countess Ella Carleton Moore von Rosen, Stockholm (circa 1900) Count Clarence von Rosen (sold Bukowski's, Stockholm, Sweden, 1934) Private Cllectio~, Stockholm By`descentpto the `resent /wner EXHIBITED Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 1847 The Great Exhibition, Crystal Palace, London, May-October 1851 City Art Gallery, Manchester, " Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, " May 20-October 1, 1857 LITERATURE " The Art Journal: Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, " London, 1851, illus. p. 288 (engraving) L. Taft, " The History of American Sculpture, " New York, 1924, 1969 reprint, p. 65 A.T.E. Gardner, " American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. " Greenwich, Ct., 1965, pp. 4-5 W. Craven, " Sculpture in America, " New York, 1984 ed., pp. 115-116, 140, fig. 4.9 According to Dr. Richard Wunder who is soon to publish a " catalogue raisonne " on the works of Hiram Powers, the present marble is the first cutting of " The Fisher Boy, " a rare example of a male subject within the sculptor's " oeuvre. " The blocking-out was begun in February 1844 and was completed by September of that year. However, the carving was not finished by Powers until November 1845 when Robert Stevenson, a noted civil engineer and the designer of the London-Birmingham railway, visited Powers" studio and purchased it for £200. The completed marble was shipped to England the following year. As described by Powers in one of his conversations with C Edwards Lester: "I had modeled a little figure which I called the Fisher Boy. It is a difficult thing to find a subject of modern times whose history and peculiarities will justify entire nudity... This figure is a king of Apollino, but the character is modern; for I hold that artists should do honor to their own times and their own religion instead of going back to mythology to illustrate, for the thousandth time, the incongruous absurdities and inconsistencies of idolatrous times, especially as our times and our religion are full of subjects equal in beauty, and have all of the qualities necessary to a full development of art." (Gardner, pp. 4- 5) Six examples of the full-figure " Fisher Boy " are recorded: 1. The present marble 2. The example which toured with the " Greek Slave " in 1849. This example was sold to Sidney Brooks who took possession of it at the close of the exhibition. Upon his death in 1879, it was sold at auction in Newport, Rhode Island. Presently unlocated. 3. This example was ordered by Prince Demidoff in 1851. It was sold in Paris in 1870 at the Demidoff sale where it was purchased by J.F. Loubas of London. Presently unlocated. 4. This example was carved in 1848. It was acquired by Hamilton Fish who donated it to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1894. 5. Private Collection, Richmond, Virginia. It has been on loan to the Richmond Museum of Fine Arts since 1955. 6. This example was completed in 1871. It was sold after Powers" death by 1881 to a Mr. Duncan. Presently unlocated.