Joseph Smith Portraits: A Search for the Prophet's Likeness By Ephraim Hatch Deseret Book, BYU Religious Studies Center, 1998. Hardcover: 112 pages. ISBN: 1-57008-394-0 Suggested retail price: $7.99 (US)
Reviewed by: Edgar C. Snow

Of Curious Workmanship: Meditations and Musings on Things Mormon

No Ma'am, That's Not My Image

I will never forget the curious sensation I felt when I reached my hand back through time and touched the face of Joseph Smith. A sculptor friend of mine visited me at my parent's home one night in the Spring of 1997 and pulled from a catalog case a bundle of towels which he unfolded on a table to reveal a copy of Joseph's death mask. I had seen pictures of it before, as well as a copy of it in the Church History Museum, but now I was actually touching the Prophet's face. I now own a copy of it as well, displayed as a centerpiece on a table in my library. It is a copy of this very death mask that is also the centerpiece of a new book by Ephraim Hatch, against which he examines an extensive collection of portraits of Joseph Smith.

According to Brother Hatch, his research into the true likeness of the Prophet began in 1975 when his stake president, our own Richard Cracroft, wanted to acquire a portrait of Joseph for his office. Hatch soon began looking for the most accurate portrait of Joseph and discovered that there was much disagreement about what he looked like. Hatch published his early findings in an Ensign article ("What Did Joseph Smith Look Like?" March 1981, 65-73) and in an interview given to Sunstone ("In Search of the Real Joseph Smith," vol. 5, no. 6 (Nov.-Dec. 1980). I even used the Ensign article in a gospel doctrine class in the late '80s. We discussed our favorite portraits of the Prophet, Joseph's manner of dress, and wondered why he combed his hair forward on the sides. A class member suggested it was due to scars from his Kirtland tar and feathering. Another queried whether that was the way Emma liked his hair. Noting my own hairline, I wondered whether it was because his hair was receding. Then someone asked: "Who cares?" I've thought a lot about that question since then, and was excited to review this book in order to finally answer it.

Perhaps this less-interested class member's question can be altered to better understand it. Why does it matter whether we know, for instance, what Jesus looked like? If it doesn't matter what he looked like, why are we counseled to have pictures of him in our homes? And why the persistent folklore about which pictures hanging in various church-owned buildings have been designated by President [insert any prophet's name here] as the one most like the Savior? I believe we're supposed to understand that these pictures aren't intended to depict our Redeemer, but to serve as a symbol and reminder of him. The earliest known depictions of Jesus show him as a young, smooth-shaven shepherd (see, for instance, John McManners, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, pp. 19-61). Later artists showed Jesus wearing a beard, the model for our current pictures, presenting him as a sage or philosopher. Yet, for all we know, Jesus may have in fact been balding, less than muscular, short and otherwise non-descript. After all, Isaiah said of him: "and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa. 53:2).

But unlike Jesus, we do have descriptions and paintings from people who saw the Prophet, and this is where Hatch begins his study. The most interesting description of Joseph collected by Hatch comes from Emma and bears directly on the topic of Joseph's portraits: "No painting of him could catch his expression, for his countenance was always changing to match his thoughts and feelings. He could not have a good portrait . . ." (p. 9). Most of the descriptions repeated by Hatch match the popular conception of the Prophet's handsome and athletic physical appearance, except one: "[he was] large, stout, tending to corpulence in later years" (p. 9). It is interesting that only one artist hints at this apparent fact, Sutliffe Maudsley, the artist favored by Hatch as the most accurate in his depiction of the Prophet drawn from real life (see chapters 6 & 8).

Hatch next turns to pictures of members of the Smith family in search of common physical characteristics. Then, he examines the death mask. As explained by Hatch, death masks (and even life masks) were common prior to this century. Casts made of plaster of Paris laid over a thin layer of grease were used to make a mold from which a "cameo," or death mask was made. Perhaps the most famous mask similar to Joseph's is the one made of Abraham Lincoln, a photo of which is found in Carl Sandburg's popular biography. Hatch authenticates the mask of Joseph and marshals evidence that it was in fact made prior to any natural disfiguring to the Prophet's features after death, a point frequently claimed to discount the value of the mask as a guide to Joseph's features. This is important groundwork for Hatch since his modus operandi is to compare the dimensions of the death mask to all of the major portraits of Joseph Smith.

It is in the comparisons of these portraits with the death mask, as well as the simple reproduction of these portraits in one book that I am extraordinarily pleased, although they are in black and white. Color reproductions, although more expensive, would have been worth an additional $10-$20 increase in the purchase price in my opinion. But enough carping. This book is a definitive study and a welcome addition to the library of any serious student of Mormon history and thought.

The main part of the text compares the death mask dimensions to various portraits of the Prophet. Of the most famous classic paintings of Joseph, the one on "The Joseph Smith Story" pamphlet rendered by Gittins (fig. 10.16), with Joseph looking to the right, his right hand on his hip, his left hand holding a manuscript, conforms perhaps most faithfully to the dimensions of the death mask. Equally accurate are the classic sculptures made by Mahonri Young (fig. 10.6 and 10.7).

Another remarkable aspect of a few of the portraits of Joseph is how much I dislike them based merely upon my own personal taste, without any regard to accuracy or artistic talent. This phenomenon, no doubt widespread among Mormons, is an important justification for Hatch's study. One portrait by Ken Riley (fig. 10.24), for instance, displeases me and Hatch for similar reasons: Joseph's just too thin. I think it makes him look like Ichabod Crane or Barry Manilow. Others bother me since they tend to prettify the Prophet; one in particular by Frank Szasz, makes him look strangely like rockstar David Bowie (fig. 10.40), except with really long eyelashes. My favorite among the paintings collected by Hatch is the one by William Whitaker (fig. 10.30) which appears on Richard Bushman's Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism and which conforms to the death mask dimensions. But perhaps the most charming depiction of the Prophet is a wax seal about 1 inch in diameter (fig. 8.2) affixed to a letter to Joseph sent from James Arlington Bennet. The letter says:

The celebrated Thomas Brown, of New York, is now engaged in cutting your head on a beautiful carnelian stone, as your private seal, which will be set in gold to your order, and sent to you. . . . The expense of this seal set in gold will be about $40, and Mr. Brown assures me that if he were not so poor a man he would present it to you free."

Joseph wrote back in an apparently puckish mood: "As to the private seal . I shall receive it with the gratitude of a servant of God, and pray that the donor may receive a reward in the resurrection of the just."

Hatch finishes his text by compiling a page of the images which best fit what is known about Joseph Smith's appearance, a kind-of top "nine" list. No doubt had the wildly popular Liz Lemon Swindle portraits been available to Hatch for inclusion in this publication, the list would have been rounded up to ten. His final conclusion and justification for the book? "I believe it is time to narrow down the wide variety of images we see of him, if for no other reason than to send a more consistent and true message to the many people who are just learning of the Church and of the Prophet of the Restoration" (p. 109). At least now I know I'm not the only one who cares.

Ed Snow

<Edgar_C._Snow@jonesday.com>

-----------------------------------------------------
Ed Snow is a practicing (i) lawyer, (ii) father, (iii) husband,
(iv) writer and (v) gospel doctrine teacher (but not necessarily
in that order) living in Atlanta, Georgia, and hopes practice
will someday make perfect.