Browere's Life Masks of Great AmericansHart, Charles Henry
History
Browere's Life Masks of Great Americans
Hart, Charles Henry
Browere, John Henri Isaac, 1792-1834; Masks (Sculpture); Sculpture, American; United States -- Biography -- Portraits
One artist, and he easily the first of American painters, did not deny
to Browere and his works the merit that was their due. On the contrary,
he saw the fidelity and great value of these life masks, and gave
practical encouragement to the maker of them by submitting to his
process and by giving a certificate of approval. He did this, not so
much that his living face might be transmitted to posterity, as to test
the truth of the newspaper reports of the suffering and danger
experienced by the venerable and venerated Jefferson, and thus by his
example encourage others to go and do likewise. The result was the
superb head of Gilbert Stuart, herewith reproduced from the original
bust, in the Redwood Library, at Newport, Rhode Island. This noble
action of Stuart must have been as light out of darkness to Browere.
Upon the completion of the mask, from which this bust was made, Stuart
gave to Browere the following emphatic certificate:
BOSTON November 29th 1825.
Mr. Browere, of the city of New York, has this day made a portrait
bust of me from life, with which I am perfectly satisfied and which
I hope will remove any illiberal misrepresentations that may
deprive the nation from possessing like records of more important
men.
G. STUART.
The “illiberal misrepresentations” referred to were of course the
reported inconveniences that Jefferson had suffered; and praise such as
this, from Stuart, is, as approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley, praise
indeed.
A few days afterward the Boston “Daily Advertiser” announced: “The
portrait bust of Gilbert Stewart, Esq., lately executed by Mr. Browere,
will be exhibited by him at the Hubard Gallery, this evening. This
exhibition is made by him for the purpose of showing that he can present
a perfect likeness, and he will prove at the same time, by the
certificate of Mr. Stewart, that the operation is without pain.” Two
days later the local press fairly teemed with laudatory notices of
Browere’s work. The Boston “American” said: “This bust has been adjudged
by all who have examined it and are acquainted with the original to be a
striking and perfect resemblance.” The “Commercial Gazette” said: “It is
a fine likeness, in truth we think the best we ever saw of any one. We
particularly enquired of Mr. Stuart’s family if he suffered by any
difficulty of breathing or if the process was in any degree painful, and
were assured that there was nothing of an unpleasant or painful nature
in it.”
Considering Stuart’s eminence in art, a position fully recognized in his
lifetime, and his irascible temper and unyielding character, such action
as his toward Browere, not only in submitting to have the mask taken,
but in certifying to it and permitting it to be publicly exhibited for
the benefit of Browere’s reputation, speaks volumes of the highest
authority in support of the workman and his work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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