Originally published in 1899. Browere's Life Masks of Great Americans is a rediscovery of the works of the artist, John Henri Isaac Browere, and provides a true history of plastic art in America. John Henri Isaac Browere (1790-1834) was an artist in New York in the early 19th century. He created life masks of Thomas Jefferson, Gilbert Stuart, Lafayette, John Quincy Adams, Edwin Forrest, Issac Van Wart, John Paulding, David Williams and other notables. ______________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Proem IThe Plastic Art IIThe Plastic Art in America IIIJohn Henri Isaac Browere IVThe Captors of Andre VDiscovery of the Life Mask of Jefferson VIThree Generations of Adamses VIIMr. and Mrs. Madison VIIICharles Carroll of Carrollton IXThe Nation's Guest, La Fayette XDe Witt Clinton XIHenry Clay XIIAmerica's Master Painter, Gilbert Stuart XIIIDavid Porter, United States Navy XIVRichard Rush XVEdwin Forrest XVIMartin Van Buren XVIIDeath Mask of James Monroe Addendum to Chapter VIII LIST OF PLATES Thomas Jefferson, Profile John H. I. Browere John Paulding Isaac Van Wart David Williams Thomas Jefferson John Adams John Quincy Adams Charles Francis Adams James Madison "Dolly" Madison Charles Carroll Marquis de La Fayette De Witt Clinton Henry Clay Gilbert Stuart David Porter Richard Rush Edwin Forrest Martin Van Buren James Monroe's Death Mask "

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... XII America's Master Painter Gilbert Stuart 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...

Alphabetically arranged and crossreferenced entries provide background information on major American painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers, plus important topics and movements central to American art from the sixteenth century to the present.

Dead men tell no tales, or so the pirate maxim goes. But when facing execution in 1831 for mutiny and murder, the previously enigmatic pirate Charles Gibbs recounted the infamous crimes of his harrowing life at sea in a self-aggrandizing series of confessions. Wildly popular reading among nineteenth-century audiences, such criminal confessions were peppered with the romanticized mythology that informs pirate lore to this day. Joseph Gibbs takes up the task of separating fact from fiction to explicate the true story of Charles Gibbs - an alias for James Jeffers (1798-1831) of Newport, Rhode Island - in an investigation that reveals a life as riveting as the legend it replaces.Jeffers was the child of a Revolutionary War privateer captain with his own history in the rough work. After a heroic career in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812, Jeffers eschewed military life and took to the privateer trade himself. As Charles Gibbs, pirate, he sailed from the ports of Charleston and New Orleans to wreak havoc in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Stripping away 170 years of embellishment, Joseph Gibbs maps the still-shockingly violent career of Charles Gibbs across the seas and, in the process, challenges and discredits much of his self-made mythology.Gibbs recounts Jeffers' well-documented role in the infamous mutiny and murders in 1830 aboard the brig Vineyard while the vessel was carrying a load of Mexican silver. The pirate was captured the following year and brought to New York. The case against Jeffers and accomplice Thomas Wansley culminated in a sensational trial, which led to their subsequent executions by hanging on Ellis Island.In addition to recounting the exploits of a ruthless cutthroat, The Confessions of Charles Gibbs tells the larger story of American piracy and privateering in the early nineteenth century and illustrates the role of American and European adventurers in the Latin American wars of liberation. Carefully researched, engagingly written, and enhanced by twenty illustrations, this is pirate history at its most credible and readable.

This volume affords a visual documentation of the most varied political career in American history and exemplifies the work of the principal American portraitists from the days of Copley and Stuart to the dawn of the Daguerrean era. Included in the 159 illustrations are all the known life portraits, busts, and silhouettes of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams, along with important replicas, copies, engravings, and representative likenesses of their siblings. The book is organized into seven chapters which generally coincide with the major divisions of John Quincy Adams' political career. Within each chapter are discussed the artists, their relationships with the Adams's, and the provenance of each of their works. A chronology of John Quincy Adams' life for each period accompanies the chapter to which it pertains. Information about the size of each likeness, the inscriptions if any, the date executed, and present ownership where known is summarized in the List of Illustrations. The Adams's, as they watched themselves age over the years in the marble, ink, or oil of the artists who portrayed them, recorded much by way of commentary on the artistic talent and process at hand. The author makes use of the diaries and correspondence preserved in the Adams Papers, thus combining a learned appreciation with an intimate glimpse of Adams's as they saw themselves.