Portrait of Hiram Powers' Daughter

This girl is thought to be Louisa Greenough Powers, the sculptor Hiram Powers’s oldest daughter. In this portrait, she is about ten or eleven years old and wears a white robe and holds a cross, symbolizing her purity and innocence. Miner Kilbourne Kellogg painted her face to reflect the quality of marble, as if to pay homage to Hiram Powers’s rank as the leading American sculptor of his day. Kellogg may have painted this portrait as a token of thanks to Powers for securing him a studio in Florence.