Proserpine was Powers' second attempt at modeling an ideal bust from his imagination. The first version of the subject, conceived in 1843, depicted the life-size goddess truncated below her breasts and in the middle of her upper arms. The body rose from a shaped basket overflowing with tube-roses and narcissus, the foot of the basket forming the socle of the bust.
The carving of the basket proved too labor intensive and expensive for atelier carving and the sculptor was forced to rework the model, substituting a richly carved border of acanthus leaves and a turned socle of the basket. This second version of Proserpine became 'the most favored single piece among Powers' work and it was copied more times than any other work ever produced by an American sculptor'. (Wunder, p. 18) It was also produced in a slightly smaller size, of which the present carving is an example.