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
luxurious locks. This effect happened in this wise. Forrest was a novice
on the stage and had just made his first appearance as _William Tell_.
Browere saw the performance, and was so struck with the personality of
the young actor that he asked permission to take his mask. Forrest
consented, but was so afraid the material of the mould might cling to
his hair, that he insisted upon wearing a skull-cap during the
operation. Some faces change so much from youth to age that it is
difficult, if not impossible, to trace any resemblance of the beginning
in the end. But the characteristics of feature and expression in
Browere’s bust of Forrest are also to be found in his latest
photographs.
The tragedian was born in old Southwark, Philadelphia, March 9, 1806,
and was “stage struck” almost from infancy, playing girl’s parts when
only twelve years old. In his fifteenth year he made his début at the
Walnut Street theatre, Philadelphia, as young _Norval_ in the tragedy of
“Douglas”; and before he was twenty-one had gained considerable
reputation and had played Othello before a New York audience. From this
time he enjoyed a vacillating reputation, but was always the stage idol
of the masses, while his intense personality kept him from appealing to
the refinements of intellect. He died at Philadelphia, December 12,
1872, leaving his fortune, books and paintings to a home for aged actors
to be called the Forrest Home; but his estate was largely crippled by
claims for unpaid alimony due to his divorced wife, so the home is not
exactly what Forrest intended that it should be.
XVI
_Martin Van Buren_
The latest work that we have from the hand of Browere, is the bust from
the life mask of “the Little Magician,” as Martin Van Buren was called,
made in 1833, the year before Browere’s death. Van Buren was then in his
fifty-first year, and he lived until July 24, 1862. His life covered a
longer era and his career witnessed greater changes in national life
than those of any other man who has occupied the presidential chair. He
was born and died in Kinderhook, Columbia county, New York; studied law
with William P. Van Ness, the friend of Burr; and was admitted to the
bar on attaining his majority. He was fitted by taste and temperament
for politics, and politics were fitted for him.
As early as his eighteenth year, before he had a vote, Van Buren was
chosen to take part in a local nominating
[Illustration: MARTIN VAN BUREN
Age 51]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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