EMANUEL LEUTZE'S THREE MASKS OF WASHINGTON

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1 EMANUEL LEUTZE'S THREE MASKS OF WASHINGTON BY R. L. S.TEzLE* HERE is, a portrait of Emanuel Leutze in the Historical TMuseum of the City of Dusseldorf painted by his friend Julius Roting. In it the artist stands beside a table- bearing a plaster mask of Washington. His left hand rests upon a book beside the mask. This portrait was painted in 1850, therefore, while Leutze was at work on Washington Crossing the Delaware. An engraving of the portrait may be found in Payne's Universurn und Buch der Kunst, Leipzig, New Series, Volume 3. In his Autobiography Worthington Whittredge says that Leutze in painting the big picture used a Houdon bust; while there is little doubt he meant the mask shown in 1Roting's portrait. The Pierpont Morgan Library in New York possesses the mask which Houdon is supposed to have made from the mould he took of Washington's face at Mt. Vernon in 1785 for use in modelling his statue of Washington. Measurements between corresponding points on the Morgan mask and the Leutze mask now in the Corcoran Gallery in Washington are so close that the conclusion that the latter was made from the former is inescapable. The reader may find these measurements, as well as reproductions of the two masks, in an article by C. A. Eisen and W. S. Conrow in Art and Archaeology for February, 1930, and in G. A. Eisen's Portraits of Washington, Voume 3, While the conclusion reached from Mr. Eisen's measurements is interesting one would like to know why, when and by whom Leutze's mask was made. Answers to these questions may be obtained from a history of the Houdon mask. The mask now in the Pierpont Morgan Library was once owned by the sculptor W. W. Story to whom, after the death of the German sculptor Ferdinand Pettrich in 1782, it was sold by Pettrich's wife. Story says that it had been given to Pettrich *The author lives in Washington, D. C. 297

2 298 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY by John Struthers, Philadelphia "stone mason, into whw possesion it had come either by gift or purchase from Rnb Walsh of Philadelphia who had bought it in Paris in is28 at the sale of Houdon's possesions. (Storybs history of the Houdo mask may be found in Harpers Weeldy for February 26, 1887) A son of Story sold the mask to J. P. Morgan in When the mask was in the hands of Houdon and Pettrich it served a useful purpose, namely, to represent Washington In their statues of him as faithfully as possible. On July 2, 1840, a group of citizens of Philadelphia passed A resolution requesting Pettrich to make a model for an equestrian statue of Washington which they planned to erect in Washington Square. In the second half of August, 184, the model, one eighth the size of the statue to be erected, was on exhibition in the

3 THREE MASKS OF WASHINGTON 299 'hall of Independence." It was decided that it would be too expensive and Pettrich was requested to make a model for a pedestrian statue. Just when this decision was reached the author has not discovered but apparently it was not until some time early in The first mention of the new model is in the Saturday Courier for May 22. Here a writer who had seen it in pettrich's studio in the Merchants Exchange wrote: "It is a noble figure, simple and beautiful. The features are copied from an original cast of the face of the great and good man." This original cast was undoubtedly the Houdon mask. While no definite statement has been found that Pettrich used the model for the equestrian statue one can scarcely doubt that he had. It may be noted here that Pettrich's model for the pedestrian statue is now in the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington. When the equestrian statue was on exhibition Emanuel Leutze was in town. He was soon to start for Dusseldorf. There can be no doubt that he had seen the equestrian statue and he certainly was acquainted with Pettrich. Leutze was an attractive, sociable young man whose ability was recognized in the art circles of Philadelphia. One can be sure that nothing in the art affairs of the city escaped him. That he might obtain a replica of the Houdon mask which could at some time be useful to him seems to have 0occurred to the young artist and at his request Pettrich appears to.have had one made for him or perhaps he himself, with Pettfich's permission, had one made. The man who made it was Augustus Lenci who, according to the Philadelphia directory of 1840 was a "plaster former" and in later directories a "statuary moulder." That this is a likely sequence of events rests upon a news item in the Saturday Courier of Philadelphia of a later date-april 8, Here, under City News, one reads: New Bust of Washington. We have been delighted with a view of a grand new bust of iwashington, life size, just composed by Signor Auguste Lenc in South Second Street, opposite the Pennsyania Bank It is a military figure, from the original of Pettnich, and the-face transferred from the mask,aken after death by Houdeh n[sic], being the same which was intended t have been imparted to

4 300 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY the Washington Square monument. The cstume is copied from the private wardrobe of the great and good man, and altogether it is the most admirable bust we have ever seen. Mr. Lend is prepared to execute orders for duplicates of the bust, and we are confident when seen by the myriads of Washigton" admirers and grateful countrymen, he will not lack a demand for the m ento. For the next three months the Couner carried advertisments notifying the public that Lend was ready to execute orders for the new bust. The statuary moulder seems to have made not only a replica for Leutze but also one for himself-and possibly more than one. It is odd that he did not offer his busts for sale until Pettrich had left the country; on February 9 the sculptor had sailed from Boston for Brazil.

5 THREE MASKS OF WASHINGTON 301 Had Mr. Eisen been familiar with the information here presented he could have concluded only that the measurements he had made of the Houdon and Leutze masks were just what they would be expected to be. At some time, probably after he brought his family to the United States in 1863, Leutze gave three identical masks to friends in the Capital. We have assumed above that Lenci made only one for him, but he may, of course, have made three. If he made only one it must then be assumed that Leutze himself had two more made at some unrecorded time and place. One of his masks he gave to the Washington banker, George W. Riggs. There is evidence that he and Leutze were friends. This mask, at the death of Mr. Riggs passed to his daughter, and at her death to the manageress of the Riggs household, Miss Mary McMullen. Following her death it was sold by her brother and is now (1971) privately owned in Washington. A second mask he gave to a man who, like himself, had grown up in Philadelphia, namely, Charles K. Stellwagen, a draftsman in the Navy Department and to some extent an artist. Following Mr. Stellwagen's death the mask was presented by his son in 1909 to the Corcoran Gallery-where it is now in storage. The third mask Leutze gave to John R. Briggs, Stationery Clerk of the House of Representatives. After Mr. Briggs' death in 1872 it was kept by his wife who presented it to the Daughters of the American Revolution a few years before her death in The mask is now in the Society's Museum.