The Jackson

Hiram Powers (1805–1873)

Marble; 34 3/4 x 23 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (88.3 x 59.7 x 39.4 cm)

This sculpture, arguably Powers's finest, commenced his career. With the sponsorship provided by his Cincinnati patron Nicholas Longworth and letters of introduction that provided him access to President Andrew Jackson, Powers went to Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1834. Jackson sat for Powers in a room next to the president's sitting room in the White House. The model, which was completed with several sittings in January 1835, pragmatically depicts the sixty-seven-year-old Jackson with his head and gaze turned to his left, his long lean face profoundly marked with wrinkles, his mouth and cheeks sunken from lack of teeth, and his creased forehead set off by a shock of thick, brushed-back hair. The only feature of the bust that relates it to the Neoclassical mode are the “unincised” eyeball and the toga. The "Jackson," along with other portrait busts of statesmen, was translated into marble after Powers settled in Florence permanently in 1837.