This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  From Westbrook Maine, Benjamin Akers was known for his portrait busts and medallions and most specifically for one sculpture, Dead Pearl Diver, about an ideal youth drowned at sea. With elaborate
carving of the fish net drapery, it brought Akers fame and success.
Sadly
his deteriorating health led to a short life, and he died at age 36 in
Philadelphia. However, his skills continue to be celebrated in Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel, The Marble Faun. The main fictional character, Kenyon, is based on Akers as the sculptor of a 'dead
pearl diver'.
Benjamin Akers received his early training in Boston from Joseph Carew. He lived briefly in Portland, Maine, and then spent a year in Italy from 1852-53, the first of three trips to Europe. In 1855, he returned to Italy where he studied with Hiram Powers and was closely associated with the Anglo-American colony that included Robert and Elizabeth Browning and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Under these influences, he turned to idealized, neoclassical sculpture, most which have disappeared except for a few in collections in Portland, Maine.
Sources:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
Groce and Wallace, Dictionary of Artists in America
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Note from a great nephew of the artist:
This sculptor, Benjamin Akers, was my great-grandfather's brother. Your bio states that most
of
his sculpture has disappeared, but I am pleased to inform you that I
viewed five busts and one full figure last week at Redwood Library in
Newport, Rhode Island. The five busts were of classical figures and the
full figure was The Dying Gaul. I have seen The Dead Pearl Diver
and agree that it is his best work. |
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