The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-04-21
Powers, Jackson.

we WenC 10 tne otdte Rouse yesterday In Order
to look at the three new pieces of sculpture by Mr..
Powers, lately brought to New Orleans and though
there is much to admire in the grace and elegance
Of the Fisher Boy" and though the Proserpine''
attracts the attention by its singular and beautiful
simplicity, yet the bust of jackson that most
strongly impressed itself on our mind. This last is
the piece that will most engage the attention of
visters to the State House, and fill them with ideas
of the sublime in art and the grand in human action
II is little to say that Powers bust is correct
representation of Gen. jackson at the time it was
taken. Amy common moulder of plaster.casts can
furnish us with an exact outline Of the face of a
man, no matter how great he may be in thought or
will or sentiment. But it requires the artist-he to
whom the poet-mind is given-he who, by divine
inspiration, observes at glance the mnuest shades
a. well as the gigantic proportions of human char
acter-he who, by the power of imagination, is
able to enter into the secret thoughts and feelings
Of all men, to give us a bust that will contain in
itself the revelation of character-the history of
q life filled with remarkable incidents and great
events. Such bust Powers, by the divine intui-
ton Of genius, has given us of Gen. Jackson. To
look at that face, you would hardly think it was
cut from marble it looks more as if it were hewn
hard and unyielding appear the features of that
remarkable countenance. Powers seems to have
seized on the great elements of Jackson's charac-
ter, familiar to us all, and melting down the imma.
terial elements in the crucible of his fancy until
they were thoroughly united, to have poured them
into the lifeless marble, and fixed them there for
future ages to admire and revere.
1t il only the artist, in the true sense of the
word-the man TO whom is given the power of
creation-that can transmit to posterity the face
and features of thoroughly great and sublime
character. Life is, in the main, even with men of
large minds placed in prominent positions. a mo.
notonous, regular, business-like affair, calling for
few or none Of the higher qualities of powerful
will and strong imagination. 1t is only on rare &C.
casions. in those critical circumstances that some
times arise in the of human events, that the
whole force of great soul is elected. Conse-
quenty, he who wishes to give an idea of the fea
lures of great man placed in trying circumstances,
must have the faculty Of imagination; for it is rare
y, if ever that the artist has the opportunity of wit
Messing the hero when he is borne onward by gust
of passion or hurried forward by the impulses of an
irresistible and overwhelming will Only such a
man could execute good bust of Gen. Jackson.
For although the features of Jackson, like those of
Washington and otter men of the same stamp, were
of 80 decided character that the most ordinary
painter readily conveyed them to canvas vet it re.
quired the genius of a'Powers to tell us in single
face the whole story of the Old Hero's eventful
life in which so many strong resolutions had been
taken and SO many great deeds executed And
who that looks at the face furnished US by Powers
that will not see written there, as in a chronicle,
the impetuous will, the fiery wrath and stern
resolution of him who humbled British pride at
New Orleans, held half-rebellious State true to
her allegiance to the Union, and trampled under his
feet the moneyed monster that threatened to devour
the substance and fetter the action of American
freemfns That mouth is not dumb it must surely
De speaking words of great moment and fierce
meaning. Those nostrils are hardly motionIess !;
they must certainly be expanding under the in
fuence of passion that burns up every thing that
opposes its progress. Though the bust is without
arms and hands, you almost expect to see the arm
raised and the hand clenched give more force to
the violent words that seem TO be bursting from the
lips.
Go then, if you are an admirer of Gen. Jack
son--snd what American is not land see the bust
of Powers. II will fill you full of the old Generals
character, and infuse into you some of that daunt-
less, undying spirit that animated the Hero of
The Hermitage, and made him the uncompromising
opponent Of wrong and injustice in every shape
end under every form,