Fig. 3, Comparison of th~ RLDs portrait of with the death mask.

30--Sunstone hat did the prophet Joseph WSmith look like? People have been arguing this question since his death 136 years ago. Even the oldest portraits by Joseph’s contem- poraries provide strikingly dissimilar views. Over the past two decades a handful of articles and at least two theses have devoted some attention to the problem. 1 However, no extensive study of the prophet’s physical appearance has been published. About six years ago, Ephraim Hatch, prompted by his interest in photography and Church history, produced a number of photographic reproductions of Joseph Smith portraits. Intrigued by the diverse images and prodded by the religion fa- culty at BYU, he began to collect photo Fig. 1, Joseph Smith’s Death Mask, 3/4 view. Fig. 2, Joseph Smith, oil on canvas, artist and copies of all known attempts to portray LDS Church Historical Department. date unknown. RLDS Church. the prophet. He researched the portraits themselves, assembled verbal descrip- ing forehead," wrote Josiah Quincy, son years of age, rather above the middle tions of Joseph by his contemporaries, stature, and what you ladies would call and examined closely the prophet’s of a Harvard president and one-time a very good looking man. In his garb mayor of Boston, who visited Joseph in death mask and skull outlines. In the there are no peculiarities; his dress process Hatch believes he has come very Nauvoo during May of 1844.2 According being that of a plain, unpretending citi- to John D. Lee, zen. He is by profession a farmer, but is close to identifying those images which 4 most accurately represent the prophet He was rather large in stature, some evidently well read. six feet two inches in height, well built, Joseph Smith. The following material is Charlotte Haven described the man based on Hatch’s proposed book on the though a little stoop shouldered, subject. prominent and well developed fea- who led the religion her sister had tures, a roman nose, light chestnut joined: Descriptions of the Prophet hair, upper lip full and rather protrud- Joseph Smith is a large, stout man, The verbal descriptions of Joseph ing, chin broad and square, and eagle youthful in his appearance, with light Smith are almost as disparate as the vis- eyed, and there was something in his complexion and hair, and blue eyes set ual images. Although many contain manner and appearance that was be- far back in the head, and expressing similarities in such traits as height and witching and winning .... 3 great shrewdness, or I should say cun- color of hair and eyes, the overall charac- Newspaper reporter Matthew L. Davis ning. He has a large head and terization in each account often varies laced his account of Joseph with his im- phrenologists would unhesitatingly according to the attitude of the observer pronounce it a bad one, for the organs pressions of Joseph’s character: in the back part are decidedly most toward the prophet. Some, like those of He is not an educated man; but he is prominent. He is also very round Josiah Quincy and John D. Lee, are a plain, sensible, strong minded man. shouldered,s physical descriptions with few, if any, Everything he says, is said in a manner Finally, in June, 1844, a reporter from comments on his character. "He was a to leave an impression that he is sin- hearty, athletic fellow, with blue eyes cere. There is no levity, no fanaticism, the St. Louis Weekly Gazette interviewed standing prominently out upon his light no want of dignity in his deportment. Joseph Smith and wrote this detailed de- complexion, a long nose, and a retreat- He is apparently from forty to forty-five scription of the prophet:

Portrait drawing of Joseph Smith done for Clay portrait bust by William Whittaker, Although John D. Lee though t Joseph had "a Ephraim Hatch by Theodore Gorka, Corte 1979. Roman nose," this unknown artist’s toga- Crayon, 1980. clad plaster bust goes one step further

November/December 1980--31 General Smith is in stature and proportion a very large man; and his fi- ¯ gure would probably be called a fine one, although by no means distin- .~ ,~ guished for symmetry or grace. His chest and shoulders are broad and muscular, although his arms and hands seem never to have been de- veloped by physical toil, and the latter are quite small for his proportions. His foot, however, is massive enough, and extensive enough, in all conscience, to make up for any deficiency in his hand. The shape of his head is a very ob- long oval---the coronal region high, de- noting a resolved will--the basilar and occipital full, indicating powerful im- pulses and the frontal retreating, al- though the region devoted by phrenologists to the organization of the perceptive powers is unusually promi- nent. Fi~. ~, Map o~ Nauvoo adve~sement, Fig. 5, Map of the City of Nauvoo, engraving, His forehead is white, without a fur- Nd~b~r, ~ May portrait from a drawing of Joseph Smith by S. row, and notwithstanding the small fa- Maudsley, 1842. Map published 1 May 1844. cial angle, somewhat symmetrical. His hair is quite light and fine--complexion looking man with a youthful appear- Joseph Smith, now in possession of the pale--cheeks full-temperament evi- ance. His chest and shoulders were LDS Church Historical Department (Fig. dently sanguine---lips thin rather than broad and muscular, although in later thick, and by no means indicative of 1). Is it truly Joseph’s death mask or a boldness or decision of character. years his shoulders were slightly sculptured imitation? Furthermore, if it But the Prophet’s most remarkable rounded. His hands were small, his feet is the actual death mask, does it accu- feature is his eye; not that it is very large, and his legs long. Joseph’s head rately represent the prophet or was it large, or very bright--very thoughtful was large and oblong in shape, and his made so long after his death that the fea- or very restless--even very deep in its hair was fine, rather straight, and light tures are distorted? expression or location; for it is usually brown in color, changing to auburn in Hatch believes that the death mask is neither of these. The hue is light hazel, later years. His eyes were blue or light authentic and that it accurately repre- and is shaded, and, at times, almost hazel, deepset, far apart, and shaded by veiled, by the longest, thickest light sents Joseph Smith for several reasons. long, thick lashes and bushy eyebrows. First, in spite of the fact that there is no lashes you ever saw belonging to a His nose was long and prominent. He man, whatever the facts respecting the mention of the mask in Roberts’ History "dear ladies." had an unconscious smile and a full, of the Church or Jensen’s The Historical Re- The brows are, also, light and rather protruding upper lip. His chin cord, there are some accounts which thick--indeed, precisely of that de- was broad and square with very little document the existence of death masks scription called beetle-brow. The ex- beard. His forehead was unfurrowed of both Joseph and Hyrum. The Cannon pression of the Prophet’s eyes when and retreating. His complexion was Family Historical Treasury states that half closed and shaded by their long light, some called it pale. He was usually "when the bodies of the martyrs were lashes was quite as crafty as I ever be- well-dressed, generally reverend-like in held. brought to Nauvoo, George Cannon was black with a white necktie. one of those who assisted in preparing His voice is low and soft, and his smile, which is frequent, is agreeable.6 the remains for burial. He made the cof- The Death Mask fins, and as he was one of the few in the From these and other accounts, Hatch There has been some controversy sur- city who had a knowledge of the process, concluded that Joseph was a good- rounding the alleged death mask of he took plaster casts of the faces and

Bronze portrait bust of Joseph by Mahonri Well-known oil portrait by Edward Grig- A natural rock outcrop located west of Delta, Young, 1908. Modelled after the death mask, ware, 1950. Located at the Los Angeles LDS Utah, looks amazingly like a Joseph Smith this work is now at Temple Square Temple. profile.

32--Sunstone (Fig. 2). Although the artist and date of the painting are unknown, there is evi- dence that Emma Smith had it and a companion portrait of herself in her home as early as 1853.8 William Whit- taker, a portrait painter who has also re- cently researched the images of Joseph Smith, made the following observation about the RLDS portraits: "The artist who painted the front view oils of Joseph and Emma would have had them as live models in order to achieve the quality of these paintings .... They are examples of a very proficient primitive artist. Details are drawn well but, the overall face may not be correct."9 In order to determine the portrait’s fidelity to Joseph’s actual appearance, Hatch compared it with the death mask. Fig. 6, Detail from Map of the City of Nauvoo Fig. 7, Profile of "Maudsley" portrait. Profile He enlarged a photograph of the mask showing Lieut. Gen. Joseph Smith in profile. of death mask. taken at the same angle as the oil portrait and one of the portrait, carefully match- heads of the dead leaders as they lay in type or pattern where the forehead ing the dimension from the eyebrow to state waiting interment.’’7 These masks slopes. It usually has a very prominent the bottom of the nose and aligning them were apparently taken to England by nose with a certain amount of hook .... I vertically and horizontally (Fig. 3). In John Taylor who had a sculptor there think this death mask is much more ac- doing so, he discovered the following in- make busts of Joseph and Hyrum. He curate than the artists’ drawings .... It accuracies: the mouth is too high and too advertised them in the Latter-day Saint’s appears to me that Joseph’s upper lip narrow, the nose is too thin at the base, Millennial Star, November 1, 1850: "I was quite prominent. His lips are not and the eyes are too close together. procured casts taken from their faces thin, not thick, but average. There is no Ironically, Hatch is convinced that the immediately after their death. I had also strain of these lips. If the jaw had drop- extant early photographic images of the various drawings with me, which ped the lips would very likely be parted. Smith were taken of this somewhat inac- had been made while they were living." His mouth could have a natural curate portrait rather than of the prophet Secondly, after closely examining the smile .... Everything seems to fit that himself. Are there, then, any close-to- events which occurred between Joseph’s I’ve seen so far, that this was a death life representational images of Joseph death and burial, Hatch concluded that mask. People that want to visualize him Smith? Hatch believes there are. the masks were made approximately as having a more prominent chin want to twenty-four hours after the martyrdom, feel that in death his jaw dropped Sutcliffe Maudsley and the Nauvoo when Joseph’s features would still have back--I don’t think so." Map been relatively undistorted. Apparently On May 1, 1844, several morticians and an orthodontist The RLDS Portrait placed the following advertisement in confirmed Hatch’s opinion. In an inter- Convinced the death mask was au- the Nauvoo Neighbor (Fig 4): "Just re- view conducted by Hatch on I June 1979, thentic, Hatch began comparing various ceived from New York, the long looked Dr. Reed A. Holdaway, past president of early portraits of the prophet to the mask for Maps of the City of Nauvoo. They can the American Board of Orthodontics, in order to evaluate accuracy of represen- be had at my house, on the corner of stated: "The prophet definitely had what tation. One of the oldest, most familiar Kimball and Granger Streets. Price, we call a convex profile. It is a certain portraits belongs to the RLDS Church mounted and varnished, $1.25--not

Wax seal on a letter to Joseph from James Ar- According to Louisa West, this sketch was Detail, "’Mauclsley’" waterco or. lington Bennett dated 24 October 1843. made by her father, Benjamin, of Joseph Artist/engraver Thomas Brown, New York. Smith in a courtroom during one of his trials.

November/December 1980---33 Smith profile and others by Maudsley with the profile of the death mask, Hatch was amazed by their striking similarity. In fact, an unsigned water color portrait of Joseph Smith, until recently in posses- sion of a member of the Smith family, displays many characteristics of Maudsley’s work and matches the death mask perfectly (Figs. 7 and 8). According to Hatch, this previously unpublished portrait is one of the most complete and detailed portraits of Joseph in uniform and is quite possibly the drawing which was used by the Nauvoo map engraver. It is Maudsley, Hatch feels, who has left us the only accurate image extant of the prophet, made while he was still living.

Notes 1. See Evelyn Horrocks Meiners, "Model for a Proposed Statue of Joseph Smith Suitable for Placement Near the En- trance of the Joseph Smith Building Brigham Young Uni- versity Provo, Utah," MA thesis, Brigham Young Univer- Fig. 8, Portrait of Joseph Smith, watercolor, Mary E. Lightner, one of Joseph’s plural sity, 1954; William B. McCarl, "The Visual Image of Joseph attributed to Sutcliffe Maudsley, date wives, painted this watercolor of her husband Smith," MA thesis, , 1962; unknown. Courtesy of Buddy Youngreen. Doyle L. Green, "Are These Portraits of the Prophet Joseph sometime before 1844. Smith?" The Improvement Era (December 1966). 2. Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past (1901), pp. 380-381. 3. John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled or the Life and Confes- mounted, 30 cents. April 30th 1844 B. artist’s name, S. Maudsley, and the year sions of the Late Mormon Bishop (St. Louis: Sun Publishing Young." Included on the map in the he made the portrait, 1842 (Fig. 6). The Co., 1882), p. 76. lower left hand corner is a profile of map image was actually made by an en- 4. Donna Hill, Joseph Smith, The First Mormon (New Lieut. Gen. Joseph Smith (Fig. 5). That graver who was employed by the firm of York: Doubleday & Co., 1977), pp. 272-273. he posed for this portrait is evidenced in J. Childs Lithographers of New York and 5. I. Woodridge Riley, The Founder of Mormonism (New his journal entry dated Saturday, June worked from Maudsley’s drawing. In York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1902), pp. 5-6. 25, 1842: "Sat for a drawing of my profile spite of the fact that the engraver proba- 6. Hyrum L. Andrus, Joseph Smith, The Man and the Seer to be placed on a lithograph of the map of bly never saw Joseph Smith, Hatch be- (SLC: Deseret Book, 1976), p. 12. the city of Nauvoo." 7. Beatrice Cannon Evans and Janath Russell Cannon, lieves that the engraving deserves more eds., Cannon Family Historical Treasury (George Cannon What he understood would be a serious consideration since it is the only Family Association, 1967), p. 63. lithograph turned out two years later to signed portrait with conclusive 8. John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith, An American Prophet be a zinc engraving measuring 27 inches documentation that the Prophet sat for (New York: Macmillan Co., 1946), frontispiece. by 22 inches. An enlarged photograph of the artist while the drawing was made. 9. Interview conducted by Ephraim Hatch with William the rather stilted engraving reveals the Furthermore, upon comparing this Whitaker, Provo, Utah, portrait artist, on July 7, 1979.

EPHRAIM HATCH has been employed in the Campus Planning and Architectural Division of the Brigham Young University for the past twenty-three years. His work in the early planning of major building projects has in- volved the use of photography. He is the hus- One of the most widely-recognized oils of Supposed pastel portrait of Joseph done in the band of Verena Ursenbach, father of six chil- Joseph by Alvin Gittens, 1959. Courtesy of early 1840s by an unknown artist and re- dren and grandfather of fifteen--soon to be LDS Church. cently discovered by Edward A. Johnson. sixteen. He is presently stake clerk.

34~Sunstone