Hiram Powers

He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture The Greek Slave.

[3][4] At age 17, Powers became an assistant to Luman Watson, Cincinnati's early wooden clockmaker, who owned a clock and organ factory.

His proficiency in modeling secured him the situation of general assistant and artist of the Western Museum, kept by a Louisiana naturalist of French extraction named Joseph Dorfeuille.

[2] In 1837 he moved to Italy and settled on the Via Fornace in Florence, where he had access to good supplies of marble and to traditions of stone-cutting and bronze casting.

[citation needed] In 1843 Powers produced his most celebrated statue, The Greek Slave, which at once gave him a place among the leading sculptors of his time.

In 2007 the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio presented the first major exhibition devoted to his work, "Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble".