Details

Title

La Penserosa

Artist/Maker

Hiram Powers (American, 1805–1873)

Date

1856

Medium

Marble

Dimensions

74 1/2 x 21 3/8 x 39 inches

Credit

Gift of the West Foundation in honor of Gudmund Vigtel and Michael E. Shapiro

Accession #

2010.82

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Robinson Atrium

Hiram Powers based this figure on the allegorical character of Melancholy in John Milton’s 1862 poem Il Penseroso (The Thinker) but selected a female personification to show the light and dark of the melancholic state of mind. Best known for his elegant nudes, Powers admitted to having struggled with La Penserosa’s detailed drapery. He pursued the subject as a commission for New York philanthropist and art collector James Lenox, who was eager to have Powers render this theme.

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