Browere's Life Masks of Great Americans 6

Browere's Life Masks of Great Americans 6

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 and died in 1826, on the

semi-centennial of the adoption of the immortal instrument of which he

is the recognized father. Through the intercession of President Madison,

his friend, neighbor and successor in the chair of state, Jefferson

consented, in Browere’s words, “to submit to the ordeal of my new and

perfect mode of taking the human features and form.” For this purpose

Browere visited Monticello, on the fifteenth of October, 1825. At this

time Jefferson was eighty-two years of age and was suffering the

infirmities incident to his advanced years. During the operation, he was

attended by his faithful man-servant Burwell, who prepared him for “the

ordeal,” by removing all of his clothing to the waist, excepting his

undershirt, from which the sleeves were cut. He was then placed on his

back, and the material applied down to the waist, including both arms

folded across the body. The entire procedure lasted ninety minutes, with

rests every ten or fifteen minutes, during which rests Jefferson got up

and walked about. The material was on Jefferson’s face for eighteen

minutes, and the whole of the mould of his features was removed

therefrom in three minutes. This was accomplished before the alarmed

entrance of his granddaughters, the Misses Randolph, into the room. They

were brought there by their brother, who had been peeping in at the

window, and begging for admission, which was denied him. It was the

exaggerated report of what young Randolph thought he saw, that induced

the sudden entrance of his sisters, and this report found its way

subsequently into the local newspapers of Virginia, with the remarkable

result indicated.

 

The intrusion of the Randolphs into the room caused delay in removing

other parts of the mould, and this did cause the venerable subject to

feel a little faint and to experience some other discomforts. But

Browere remained at Monticello overnight, dining with Jefferson and the

Randolphs, and chatting with his host through the evening until

bed-time, which would scarcely have been the case had the artist nearly

suffocated and otherwise maltreated his subject, so that for his safety,

the cast had to be shattered to pieces. But we do not have to speculate

and surmise. We have direct and unimpeachable proof to the contrary.

 

The very day on which, according to Randall and his followers, the

“suffocation” and “shattering” took place, Jefferson wrote:

 

At the request of the Honorable James Madison and Mr. Browere of

the city of New York, I hereby certify that Mr. Browere has this

day made a mould in plaster composition from my person for the

purpose of making a portrait bust and statue for his contemplated

National Gallery. Given under my hand at Monticello, in Virginia,

this 15th day of October, 1825.

 

TH: JEFFERSON.

 

 

 

Four days later President Madison, who, with his wife, was Browere’s

next subject, writes: “A bust of Mr. Jefferson, taken by Mr. Browere

from the person of Mr. Jefferson, has been submitted to our inspection

and appears to be a faithful likeness.” That Jefferson did suffer some

inconvenience, from the application of the wet material, is undeniable.

Three

 

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON

 

Age 82]

 

days after the taking of the mould he wrote to Madison: “I was taken in

by Mr. Browere. He said his operation would be of about twenty minutes

and less unpleasant than Houdon’s method. I submitted without enquiry.

But it was a bold experiment, on his part, on the health of an

octogenary worn down by sickness as well as age. Successive coats of

thin grout plastered on the naked head and kept there an hour, would

have been a severe trial of a young and hale man.”

 

But the newspapers had gotten hold of the “suffocation” and “shattering”

story, and any one familiar with the newspapers of that day knows what a

scarcity of news there was. Therefore the press over the land laid the

Virginia papers tribute for this bit of sensationalism. Richmond, Boston

and New York vied with each other in keeping the ball moving. But “those

teachers of disjointed thinking,” as Dr. Rush called the public press,

were getting too rabid for Browere, so he published, in the Boston

“Daily Advertiser” of November 30, 1825, a two-column letter, in which

he calls the attack by the “Richmond Enquirer,” the most virulent of his

assailants, “a libel false in almost all its parts and which I am now

determined to prove so by laying before the public every circumstance

relating to that operation on our revered ex-president, Thomas

Jefferson.”

 

A copy of this published letter Browere sent to Jefferson under cover of

the following important but effusive epistle:

 

NEW YORK, May 20, 1826.

 

_Most Esteemed and venerable Sir_:

 

As the poet says “there are strings in the human heart which once

touched will sometimes utter dreadful discord.” Per the public

vehicles of information, the ex-President has perceived the very

illiberal manner in which my character and feelings have been

treated, and that of those of his honor have been unintentionally

wounded. Mine have been publickly assaulted, upbraided and

lacerated. And why? Because through the error of youth, I

unwittingly, in a confidential letter to M. M. Noah, Esq., editor

of the New York National Advocate, had written in a style either

too familiar or that the whole of said letter (instead of extracts

therefrom) had been made public. In my address to the Boston

public, the ex-president will perceive I set down naught but facts.

That I intended not to wound your feelings or those of the ladies

at Monticello, I acknowledged the urbanity of Mr. Jefferson and the

hospitality of his family. Possibly the ex-president is not aware

that a young gentleman, one of his family, did, previous to my

departure from Monticello, (the very afternoon of the day on which

I took the bust) go to Charlottesville, and publickly declare I had

almost killed Mr. Jefferson, first almost separating the ears,

cutting the skull and suffocating him. What were my feelings? What!

would not any man of spirit and enterprise resent such assertions

and rebut them? I was in this state of feeling when I indited the

letter to M. M. Noah, which letter I fear has forfeited me your

confidence and regard. But a letter confidential and therefore not

to be attributed as malign or censorious.

 

Your character I have always esteemed, and I now intend evidencing

that regard by making a full-length statue of the “Author of the

Declaration of American Independence,” which (if the president be

not in New York on the 4th of July next) I intend presenting for

that day to the Honorable the Corporation of New York, to be

publickly exhibited to all who desire to view the beloved features

of the friend of science and of liberty.

 

The attitude of your statue will be standing erect; the left hand

resting on the hip; the right hand extended and holding the

unfolded scroll, whereon is written the Declaration of American

Independence. If possible, History, Painting, Sculpture, Poetry and

Fame will be attendant. The portrait busts of Washington, John

Adams, Franklin, Madison, John Q. Adams, Lafayette, Clinton and

Jay, will be on shields, hung on the column of Independence,

surmounted with the figure of Victory. May you enjoy health, peace

and competence. May the God of nature continue to shower down his

choicest blessings on your head and finally receive you to himself

is the prayer of your sincere friend,

 

J. H. I. BROWERE.

 

 

 

This communication Jefferson acknowledged, within a month of his

decease, in a letter of such ruling importance in this connection, as it

_settles the question forever_, that I am glad of the opportunity to

publish it in full.

 

MONTICELLO, June 6, ’26.

 

_Sir_:

 

The subject of your letter of May 20, has attracted more notice

certainly than it merited. That the operé to which it refers was

painful to a certain degree I admit. But it was short lived and

there would have ended as to myself. My age and the state of my

health at that time gave an alarm to my family which I neither felt

nor expressed. What may have been said in newspapers I know not,

reading only a single one and that giving little room to things of

that kind. I thought no more of it until your letter brot. it again

to mind, but can assure you it has left not a trace of

dissatisfaction as to yourself and that with me it is placed among

the things which have never happened. Accept this assurance with my

friendly salutes.

 

TH: JEFFERSON.

 

 

 

Notwithstanding this “very kind and consolatory letter,” as Browere had

good reason to call it, the report that the venerable Jefferson had been

nearly suffocated and otherwise maltreated by the artist, was so widely

circulated that Browere’s career was seriously affected by it; and so

much easier is it to disseminate error than truth, that his hopes were

not fulfilled that the publication of Jefferson’s letter would, as he

wrote to Madison, “in some manner turn the current of popular prejudice,

which at present is great against my _modus operandi_.”

 

In acknowledging Jefferson’s letter of the 6th, Browere writes

concerning the statue: “On the very day of the receipt of yours, the

13th inst., I had completed your full length statue (nudity) and

to-morrow I intend, if spared, to commence dressing it in the costume