Browere's Life Masks of Great Americans 8

Browere's Life Masks of Great Americans 8

It is certainly of curious interest to have busts of three generations,

in one family, made by the same hand and within a few days of each

other, as is the case with Browere’s casts of John, John Quincy, and

Charles Francis Adams.

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

VII

 

_Mr. and Mrs. Madison_

 

 

“Jimmy” Madison and his wife “Dolly” were prominent characters in social

as well as in public life. He early made a name for himself by his

knowledge of constitutional law, and acquired fame by the practical use

he made of his knowledge, in the creation of the Constitution of the

United States, and in its interpretation in the celebrated letters of

the “Federalist.” With the close of Washington’s administration Madison

determined to retire to private life, but shortly before this he met the

coy North Carolina Quakeress, Dorothea Payn. She was at the time the

young widow of John Todd, to whom she had been married not quite a year,

and Madison made her his wife.

 

James Madison was born in 1751 and Dorothea Payn in 1772, but the score

and one years’ difference in their ages did

 

[Illustration: JAMES MADISON

 

Age 74]

 

not prevent them from enjoying a married life of two score and two years

of unclouded happiness. Madison died in 1836, and was survived by Mrs.

Madison for thirteen years.

 

Madison’s temperament, like that of his young bride, was tuned to too

high a pitch to be contented with quietness after the excitement

incident to his earlier career. Therefore his retirement, like stage

farewells, was only temporary, and he became afterward the fourth

President of the United States. As we have seen, it was Madison who

brought Browere to the notice of Jefferson, and Browere was commended to

Madison in the following letter from General Jacob Brown, the land hero

of the war of 1812, and later Commander-in-chief of the Army of the

United States:

 

WASHINGTON CITY, Oct. 1st, 1825.

 

_My Dear Sir_:

 

Mr. Browere waits on you and Mrs. Madison with the expectation of

being permitted to take your portrait busts from the life. As I

have a sincere regard for him as a gentleman and a scholar, and

great confidence in his skill as an artist (he having made two

busts of myself), in the art which he is cultivating, I name him to

you with much pleasure as being worthy of your encouragement and

patronage. I am interested in having Mr. Browere take your

likeness, for I have long been desirous to obtain a perfect one of

you. From what I have seen and heard of Mr. Browere’s efforts to

copy nature, I hope to receive from his hands that desideratum in a

faithful facsimile of my esteemed friend ex-President Madison. Be

pleased to present my most respectful regards to Mrs. Madison, and

believe me always

 

Your most devoted friend,

 

JACOB BROWN.

 

 

 

From this introduction Browere seems to have gained the friendship of

Mr. and Mrs. Madison, who took more than an ordinary interest in the

artist and his family. They were on terms of familiar intercourse, and

an infant, born to Mrs. Browere, July 3, 1826, was, by Mrs. Madison’s

permission, named for her. Some years later this child accompanied her

parents on an extended visit to Montpelier.

 

That Madison was satisfied with the result of Browere’s skill is shown

by the following:

 

Per request of Mr. Browere, busts of myself and of my wife,

regarded as exact likenesses, have been executed by him in

plaister, being casts made from the moulds formed on our persons,

of which this certificate is given under my hand at Montpelier, 19,

October, 1825.

 

JAMES MADISON.

 

 

 

[Illustration: “DOLLY” MADISON

 

Age 53]

 

Mr. and Mrs. Madison each submitted to Browere’s process a second time,

which is sufficient evidence that the ordeal was not severe and

hazardous. The bust of Madison is very fine in character and __EXPRESSION__,

but that of Mrs. Madison is of particular interest, as being the only

woman’s face handed down to us by Browere. Her great beauty has been

heralded by more than one voice and one pen, but not one of the many

portraits that we have of her, from that painted by Gilbert Stuart, aged

about thirty, to the one drawn by Mr. Eastman Johnson, shortly before

her death, sustains the verbal verdict of her admirers; and now the life

mask by Browere would seem to settle the question of her beauty in the

negative.

 

“Dolly” Madison was in her fifty and third year when Browere made his

mask of her face, and she lived on for a quarter century. She has always

been surrounded by an atmosphere of personal interest, not so much for

what she was as for what she was supposed to be. She doubtless possessed

a charm of manner that made her a most attractive hostess at the White

House during her reign of eight years, in which particular she shares

the laurels with the winsome wife of Mr. Cleveland.

 

 

 

 

VIII

 

_Charles Carroll of Carrollton_

 

 

The last of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, to be

gathered to his fathers, was the distinguished Marylander, Charles

Carroll of Carrollton, who so signed his name to distinguish himself

from a younger kinsman of the same name, his object being merely

purposes of convenience, and not the patriotic purpose of identifying

himself to the British, as is commonly stated. Charles Carroll was not a

member of the Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence

was adopted, but took his seat a fortnight afterward, in time to sign

the instrument with the rest of the sitting delegates, when it was

placed before them on August 2, 1776.

 

Mr. Carroll died November 14, 1832, in his ninety-sixth

 

[Illustration: CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON

 

Age 88]

 

year, and his last public act was to lay the corner-stone of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on July 4, 1828. From the description of his

personal appearance at this time, as given by Hon. John H. B. Latrobe,

it would seem as if it had been written of Browere’s bust, so true is

Browere’s work to the life. Mr. Latrobe says: “In my mind’s eye I see

Mr. Carroll now--a small, attenuated old man, with a prominent nose and

receding chin, [and] small eyes that sparkled when he was interested in

conversation. His head was small and his hair white, rather long and

silky, while his face and forehead were seamed with wrinkles.”

 

At the present time, when foreign matrimonial alliances of high degree,

with American women, are of almost daily occurrence, it is interesting

to note that among the first American women to marry into the nobility

of England were three granddaughters of the “signer,” Charles Carroll of

Carrollton. They were the children of his daughter, Mrs. Caton, and

became respectively the Marchioness of Wellesley, the Duchess of Leeds,

and Lady Stafford.

 

Browere, when he presented himself to Mr. Carroll for the purpose of

making his mask, was armed with the following letter from the eminent

scientist, Doctor Samuel Latham Mitchill, which contains the super-added

endorsements of Archibald Robertson, Richard Riker and M. M. Noah:

 

NEW YORK, July 8, 1825.

 

_My dear Sir_:

 

I approve your design of executing a likeness in statuary of the

Honorable Charles Carroll of Carrollton. When you shall present

yourself to him within a few days, I authorize you to employ my

testimony in favor of your skill, having submitted more than once

to your plastic operation. I know that you can perform it

successfully without pain and within a reasonable time. The

likenesses you have made are remarkably exact, so much so that they

may be truly called facsimile imitations of the life. Your gallery

contains so many specimens of correct casts that not only common

observers, but even critical judges bear witness to your industry,

genius and talents. I foresee that your collection of busts already

well advanced and rapidly enlarging, will, if your labors continue,

become a depositary of peculiar and intrinsic value. Without

instituting any invidious comparison between sister arts, the

professional branch under which you address Mr. Carroll, possesses,

in my humble opinion, all the superiority that sculpture exercises

over music and painting.     Yours, with kind feelings and fervent wishes for success,SAMUEL L. MITCHILL.