Hiram Powers nicknamed Charles Fuller “Captain” because of his student’s military experience. Along with fellow American sculptor Thomas Ball, they formed a small colony of expatriates in their neighborhood in Florence. Living in such close proximity, they visited one another’s studios, shared ideas, and created portraits of each other. Here, Fuller presented Powers as a contemplative and solemn-looking man, nearing the end of a long and successful career. Fuller exhibited the terra-cotta bust from which this cast was made at the Royal Academy in 1873, the year of Powers’s death.
