opportunity to paint the first

frescoed room in the Capitol

(fig. 5–1).

As recorded in the Bible

given to him by the American

Bible Society upon his arrival

(fig. 5–2), Constantino Brumidi landed in New York on

September 18, 1852, coincidentally the fifty-ninth anniversary of the laying of the

cornerstone of the Capitol by

George Washington. His

commitment to his new

country was clear, for, at the

end of November, he filed a

statement of intent to become a United States citizen.2

During the next two

years, Brumidi earned his living chiefly by painting portraits and decorating private houses in the northeastern

United States. He immediately made connections with

prominent families. His earliest known American portrait, dated 1852, is of Boston merchant Emery Bemis.3

The next year, he signed and dated a finely detailed portrait of Eveline Fessenden Freeman (fig. 5–3), daughter

of the U.S. marshal for Massachusetts, who in 1860

would marry Thomas U. Walter’s assistant Edward

Clark. Brumidi’s portraits are lifelike, well composed,

and skillfully painted in a style that shows his neoclassical training and his skill at convincingly depicting varied

textures of skin and fabric.

For the Bennitt family of New York he painted portraits

and, in 1853, three allegorical images, Progress, Freedom,

Constantino Brumidi

arrived in New York

only a few months

after his release from prison

in Rome, ready to begin a

new career in the United

States. He later said he emigrated as much for artistic

opportunities as because of

his political exile, “desiring a

broader field and more profitable market for his work.”1

He had promises of church

commissions through American clergymen he knew in

Rome, and he probably

heard about the construction

at the Capitol from expatriate American artists such as

Thomas Crawford, who served with him in the civic

guard. In the two years between his arrival in the New

World in the fall of 1852 and his coming to Washington,

D.C., in late 1854, he obtained commissions in New

York, Massachusetts, and Mexico City. The turning point

in his career was his introduction to Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, who superintended the construction

of the United States Capitol extensions and gave him the

49

CHAPTER 5

Getting Established 

in the New World

Fig. 5–2. Inside cover of Brumidi’s Bible. The artist

recorded the date of his arrival in the United States. Architect

of the Capitol.

Fig. 5–1. Fresco with profile relief portrait of George Washington in Brumidi’s first room in the Capitol. The Italian

artist was hired as the artist of the Capitol after proving his ability

to work in true fresco, to paint the illusion of three-dimensional

forms, and to create American subjects and symbols. H–144.
and Plenty, for their house in South Hampton, Long

Island; these are his earliest documented domestic murals

(fig. 5–4).4 Brumidi continued to paint for domestic settings throughout his career, although few examples are

securely documented or intact. 

In 1854, before coming to Washington, Brumidi traveled to Mexico City; he was there by May and left in December.5 There he executed his first church commission

in the New World, a Holy Trinity, a large altarpiece or

mural, for the cathedral in Mexico City. This work was

mentioned in numerous nineteenth-century articles

about Brumidi, but its present location is unknown. The

commission was an outgrowth of the strong ties between

the art academies in Rome and Mexico City. The best

Mexican artists went to study at the Accademia di San

Luca in Rome, and some of Brumidi’s former colleagues

at the Villa Torlonia taught or exhibited at the Academia

Nacional de San Carlos de México.6 While in Mexico

City, Brumidi sketched Aztec idols and the large calendar

stone then displayed at the cathedral; he later incorporated these objects in the scene “Cortez and Montezuma

at the Aztec Temple” for the frieze in the Capitol.7

Five paintings by Brumidi were exhibited at the Mexican academy in January 1855, among them a portrait and

large canvases of the Assumption of the Virgin and the

Immaculate Conception. In December 1856, he exhibited a nine-foot-high Holy Trinity, possibly the altarpiece

itself, as well as a smaller version, probably an oil study

for it.8 These paintings must have been submitted for the

exhibition by friends, for there is no evidence that Brumidi returned to Mexico after he left for the United

States on December 12, 1854.9

The Holy Trinity for the cathedral in Mexico City was

only the first of numerous major church commissions Brumidi undertook in the New World. He painted murals and

altarpieces in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New

York, and Havana after he began working at the Capitol.

American clergymen whom Brumidi had met in Rome

were instrumental in his being selected for work in new

churches being built in the United States. One supporter

was John Norris, who studied for the priesthood in Rome

from 1848 to 1851, and with whom Brumidi, before his

arrest, had hoped to travel to America. Brumidi painted

Norris’s portrait and those of Norris’s mother, sister, and

brother-in-law, Andrew J. Joyce, with whom Brumidi

stayed when he first came to Washington.10 Brumidi may

also have been helped by his acquaintance with the first

American archbishop, John Hughes of New York, who

50

Fig. 5–4. Progress. Painted for a private home, Progress rides on a

dolphin and wears a headdress with feathers and a star, suggestive of

America. The cherubs hold symbols of commerce and liberty, while the

steam ship Baltic and a locomotive appear in the distance, all motifs

Brumidi later painted in the Capitol. Architect of the Capitol, donated through the United States Capitol Historical Society by

Howard and Sara Pratt.

Fig. 5–3. Eveline Fessenden Freeman. Miss Freeman, depicted by

Brumidi in finely rendered lace and satin, later married Edward

Clark, future Architect of the Capitol. Architect of the Capitol.
priest called to Brumidi’s deathbed. 12 It is clear that Brumidi’s connections with the Roman Catholic Church were

important throughout his life.

Brumidi’s earliest known church commission in the

United States was for St. Stephen’s Church in New

York. This commission was initiated before he left Italy,

and he mentioned it when he was introduced to Montgomery Meigs at the Capitol in late 1854. Brumidi

postponed work for the church to paint his trial piece at

the Capitol, but by 1855, he had created the design for

Martyrdom of St. Stephen. The immigrant artist had thus

was in Rome in 1851. Hughes collected art and preached

at many of the churches where Brumidi painted.11 Brumidi’s closest and longest personal connection was with

the Reverend Benedict Sestini, S.J., who came from Rome

to Georgetown University. He became a lifelong friend of

the artist and was instrumental in securing at least two of

Brumidi’s church commissions. He recommended Brumidi to the Church of St. Ignatius in Baltimore. He also

designed the Church of St. Aloysius in Washington, D.C.,

for which Brumidi painted the altarpiece, in which he included Sestini’s portrait (fig. 5–5). Father Sestini was the

51

GETTING ESTABLISHED IN THE NEW WORLD

Fig. 5–5. St. Charles Borromeo Giving Holy Communion to St. Aloysius Gonzaga. Brumidi’s altarpiece, inspired by a seventeenth-century painting of the

subject, includes a self portrait, in the center distance,

and the features of the designer of the church, Father

Benedict Sestini, in the priest at the far right, while Mrs.

Stephen Douglas is thought to be the model for St. Aloysius’s mother. St. Aloysius Church, Washington, D.C. 

Photo: Page Conservation, Inc.
within a few years established himself as the artist of the

most important ecclesiastical and political monuments

then being constructed.

On December 28, 1854, only two weeks after leaving

Mexico, Brumidi was in Washington, D.C., and had

arranged an introduction to Captain Montgomery C.

Meigs (1816–1892), the engineer in charge of decorating

as well as constructing the Capitol extensions for the War

Department (fig. 5–6). The intermediary, according to

Meigs’s journal, was an “old gentleman,” sculptor Horatio Stone, who served with Meigs on the vestry of St.

John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square. Stone was

about the same age as Brumidi, whom Meigs similarly described as “a lively old man.” Stone had established himself as a sculptor in Washington and

in 1856 would be commissioned to create a marble sculpture of John Hancock for the Capitol.

(Ironically, he later formed the Washington Art

Association, which attacked Brumidi’s work in the

Capitol.13) 

Brumidi’s arrival in Washington enabled Meigs

to realize his grand plans for decorating the extensions with murals in addition to sculpture. Meigs

felt a strong sense of mission about his role in decorating the Capitol: “Although an engineer and

‘nothing more’ I have some feeling for art, some

little acquaintance with its principals [sic] and its

precepts and a very strong desire to use the opportunities & the influence which my position, as directing head of this great work, gives me for the

advancement of art in this country.”14 Even before

Brumidi’s appearance, Meigs had already envisioned fresco painting like that of Raphael and

Michelangelo on a grand scale for the interior of

the Capitol. The engineer had great confidence in

his own artistic judgment and taste, as is shown in

comments in his journals. He had a deep and

long-standing personal interest in art and had

studied art at West Point with Seth Eastman and

possibly with painters Charles Leslie and Robert

Weir, who taught drawing there during his student

years.15 His own landscape drawings and watercolors are more than competent (fig. 5–7). He was always interested in increasing his knowledge about

art. Meigs also consulted experts in the field of art,

such as collector Gouverneur Kemble, who solicited advice for him from painter John Chapman,

and he corresponded about the art program with the

German-born painter Emanuel Leutze.16 At every opportunity he visited galleries and artists’ studios and studied

art books. He was familiar with the murals of Pompeii

through books. In 1854, he went to the Astor Library in

New York to see a set of books of Raphael’s works in the

Vatican reproduced in color, and he was especially impressed with the loggias. Meigs commented: “I have

never seen color engraving of these works before. They

are very beautiful, rich and harmonious in color, simple

and beautiful in design. I wish I could see the rooms

themselves. This book will give us ideas in decorating our

lobbies.”17 Thus, when Brumidi, who had worked in

these very Vatican loggias, appeared in Washington, he

must have seemed like the answer to Meigs’s prayers. 

Not surprisingly, Meigs determined that the content of

the decoration for the Capitol should be American history, an idea he expressed in a letter to sculptor Thomas

52

Fig. 5–6. Montgomery C. Meigs, c. 1861. In his role as 

supervising engineer, Meigs oversaw the art program carried out

by Brumidi. Lola Germon Brumidi Family Album, United States

Senate Collection.
test seemed to be that the subject matter be American, if not the spirit and manner.19

Unfortunately, Meigs’s ideas about the iconographical

program were undoubtedly conveyed to Brumidi in person and were not recorded, even in Meigs’s personal journal. Meigs’s recently transcribed private journal does,

however, give us a vivid description of his first meeting

with Brumidi on December 28, 1854, and the painting of

Brumidi’s first fresco (see Appendix A). The engineer

failed to catch the Italian painter’s name, but remembered

him as “a lively old man with a very red nose, either from

Mexican suns or French brandies.” Their discussion was

conducted in “bad French,” the language they had in

common.20 Despite their difficulty in communicating,

Brumidi made a positive first impression on Meigs. 

Meigs was impressed with Brumidi’s credentials, which

included his training at the academy in Rome and his experience in fresco in the splendid house of the banker

Torlonia, and with his confidence in his skill. Brumidi

told him of pending religious and secular commissions,

one for a church, undoubtedly St. Stephen’s in New

York, and another for a hotel. When told he would need

to start a sample piece soon, so that the members of ConCrawford: “In our history of the struggle between the

civilized man and the savage, between the cultivated and

the wild nature are certainly to be found themes worthy

of the artist and capable of appealing to the feeling of all

classes.”18 Meigs was not convinced, however, that any

American painters were capable of carrying out his vision,

which was of more concern to him than the nationality of

the artists. His biographer Russell Weigley commented: 

Meigs was trying in his own way to make the art of

the Capitol a distinctively American art; but he conceived of the American quality of art as a characteristic of the work of art, not necessarily of the birthplace of the artist. The proposition that the art of the

United States Capitol ought to be American art

commanded widespread agreement from the American public, government, and press. What constituted

an American art was not so clear. To Meigs, the main

53

GETTING ESTABLISHED IN THE NEW WORLD

Fig. 5–7. Montgomery C. Meigs, From a Sketch, Washington

City by Capt Eastman. This drawing shows Meigs’s skill and 

documents his reconnection with his drawing instructor Seth 

Eastman. Department of Political History, National Museum of

American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 

Photo: Smithsonian Institution.
gress could see it, Brumidi “laughed and said that the

church would be there always, Congress would pass, and

he would paint this first.”21 Meigs immediately thought

of a lunette in his temporary office in the new House extension as a good location for a trial piece. Meigs later

summarized this meeting:

. . . in a fortunate moment an Italian artist applied to

me for employment as a painter of fresco. He asked

the use of a wall on which he might paint an example

of his skill, saying that he could not carry fresco

paintings with him, had executed none in the U.

States to which he could refer me, but if I gave him

the opportunity he would paint one at his own expense. I hesitated but at length told him that the

room in which I then sat, which had only a rough

coat of brown plaster, might be assigned to the

Committee on Agriculture, and he might paint in

the lunette of the wall a subject relating to agriculture, provided the sketch he should submit seemed

to me worthy. 22

Although tempered with caution in this account,

Meigs’s optimism about this recent immigrant’s ability

to carry out a grand decorative plan would prove to be

fully justified.

H–144

Meigs chose the theme of Cincinnatus called from the

plow to be dictator of Rome, “a favorite subject with all

educated Americans, who associate with that name the Father of our Country,” for what Brumidi called “the first

specimen of real fresco introduced in America.”23 The

subject was appropriate because of the planned use of the

room by the House Committee on Agriculture and its

connection with George Washington. Lucius Quinctius

Cincinnatus was a Roman hero of the fifth century B.C., a

farmer, soldier, and statesman. George Washington was

often compared with Cincinnatus and was, in fact, the first

president of the Society of the Cincinnati, which was

formed by officers of the Continental Army. The choice of

this subject must have delighted Brumidi, for he had already painted a lunette of the same subject in Rome.24

Before beginning the fresco, Brumidi prepared an oil

sketch of the scene (fig 5–8). In his journal, Meigs commented positively on the sketch: “It is good and shows skill

in drawing and composition and coloring, much greater

than I expected.”25 Once the sketch was approved, Brumidi created a full-size cartoon, with which Meigs was less

satisfied, feeling the artist had drawn the figures carelessly

and out of proportion (perhaps not understanding the use

of foreshortening): “I pointed out some defects, which he

did not seem to be quite pleased at my doing. I told him

that he would have many critics, as

the American painters would all look

with jealousy at him and at his works

and that they would find all the fault

they could.”26

Meigs’s journal entries describing

the painting of the room (Appendix

A) give us remarkable step-by-step

details of Brumidi’s working procedures and progress; we even learn

that Meigs caught cold from the

dampness created by the wet

mortar.27 The master mason, Alexander B. McFarlan, applied the mortar

for Brumidi. Meigs recorded that the

artist began to paint in fresco on

January 24, 1855. Brumidi worked

cautiously, completing only half of a

figure in a day, and sometimes having to cut out and redo sections with

which he was not satisfied. Meigs

noted that Brumidi put the finishing

54

Fig. 5–8. Sketch for Calling of Cincinnatus from the Plow.

Brumidi prepared this oil sketch of his first fresco for the Capitol

for Meigs’s approval. Estate of Edna W. Macomb. 

Photo: Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State.

Fig. 5–9. House Appropriations Committee room. Brumidi

proved his ability to design murals, his skill in executing fresco, and

his artistic talent in the first room he painted in the Capitol. H–144. 
5 5

GE T T I N G ES TA B L I S H E D I N T H E NE W WO R L D
56
of decorating the room as $3,700, of which Brumidi

earned $2,632 for 329 days of work.35

The beautifully decorated room attracted great congressional interest, and several committees were allowed

to meet there. In May 1856, for example, it was used by

the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, which

was chaired by Brumidi’s admirer Congressman Stanton, “when permitted to do so by the crowd of persons

attracted there from day to day.”36 In July, Meigs noted

that “the fresco painting . . . is evidently popular with

the Members. Of committees, no less than 4 committees

have met in this room.”37 The public also continued to

show great interest in the frescoed room. By 1857, it

had become such a tourist attraction that during recesses of Congress it was necessary to have a person on

duty all day just to admit visitors.38 Even in the 1880s, it

was visited by thousands of people a year.39 The Agriculture Committee occupied the space intended for it until

1922, when the room was assigned to a subcommittee

of the Committee on Appropriations. Recently, H–144

has been converted to a hearing room by the Appropriations Committee.

Brumidi’s first room in the Capitol (fig. 5–9) is one of

the most beautiful he ever executed. It is particularly

pleasing because he was able to complete his entire

scheme without interruption. Brumidi demonstrated his

understanding of the Renaissance tradition and created

aesthetic and thematic harmony and balance. His trompe

l’oeil illusionistic effects are completely convincing. The

room seems to be filled with live figures, carved sculpture, and gilded frames that look three-dimensional but

are actually flat. 

On the ceiling, Brumidi depicted figures representing

the Four Seasons floating on clouds above stone arches

(fig. 5–10). On the east is Spring, represented by the

youthful Flora, Roman goddess of flowers, who drops

blossoms into the room below; she is framed by billowing pink drapery and surrounded by cherubs, one of

whom is crowning her with a wreath. On the south is

Summer, represented by Ceres, goddess of agriculture,

who is shown with a sheaf of wheat and a sickle, flanked

by cupids with a scythe and cornucopia. Representing

Autumn on the west is Bacchus, the god of wine, who

carries his traditional thyrsus (a pinecone-tipped staff)

and accepts a bunch of grapes while being transported

by a cloud in a procession led by cherubs with ancient

cymbals and a tambourine. Finally, Boreas, the bearded

god of the north wind, commands the cherubs to create

Winter’s wind and snow.40 Between the framed vaults

are illusionistic carved stone reliefs of garlands, cherubs,

and eagles. In the Renaissance tradition, Brumidi

painted the forms as if illuminated by the light from the

actual windows in the room.

touches on the fresco on March 17, 1855, after four

weeks of work, at which point he signed and dated the

lunette at the lower right.28 Meigs was pleased with reactions to the fresco: “The experiment was successful. No

better picture yet adorns the walls of the Capitol, and I

was relieved from much anxiety by finding that our Legislators visited and admired the picture and were much interested in its progress and in the process then first seen

in this country of the noble art of fresco painting, and

that even strict economists and men from the western

wilderness expressed their satisfaction and encouraged me

to go on.”29

In addition to members of Congress, other government officials and art connoisseurs viewed the Italian

artist’s progress. Among the important people Meigs

brought to see Brumidi’s accomplishments were President Franklin Pierce, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis,

Senator Stephen Douglas, financier and art collector

William Corcoran, and painter Daniel Huntington. Congressman Richard Stanton, Chairman of the House Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, expressed great

admiration for Brumidi’s work.30 On March 20, Davis authorized Meigs to pay Brumidi, who had been working at

his own expense, $8 per day retroactively, thus officially

approving the work and allowing him to proceed with the

decoration of the rest of the room.31 Captain Meigs wrote

in his official report to the secretary of war: “One of the

rooms of the basement [first floor] of the south wing is

now being painted in fresco. This will enable Congress to

see a specimen of this the highest style of architectural

decoration. It is the most appropriate and beautiful mode

of finishing the building. . . .”32

Once he had won the approval to go ahead, Brumidi

painted more quickly, assisted by painter Louis Franze

and laborer Michel Long. Meigs gave his full support, including the use of a separate “painting room” for preparation of cartoons and assistance in researching Revolutionary uniforms.33 By the end of March 1855, Brumidi

had made the sketch of The Four Seasons for the ceiling.

In early June, after two months of working the cartoons,

the artist was ready for the scaffold to be erected.34 After

almost a year of working on the ceilings and walls, in

early April 1856, Brumidi completed the decoration of

the room and the key was turned over to the Speaker of

the House. Meigs judged: “I think that whatever committee takes possession of it will have a hard time with the

public who throng to see it.” He reported the total cost

57

GETTING ESTABLISHED IN THE NEW WORLD

Fig. 5–10. The Four Seasons. Figures personifying spring,

summer, autumn, and winter appear to float on clouds above the

arches in the ceiling. H–144.
In the east lunette (fig. 5–11), Cincinnatus, in the

weight-shifted (contrapposto) stance of classical sculpture,

is being approached by a priest. Two of the Roman soldiers hold fasces, the symbol of authority of the Roman

government, which had been adopted as the mace of the

House of Representatives. In the distance at the left is an

idealized view of Rome, while at the right a curly-haired

boy, for which Meigs’s son Monty posed, and a dog observe the event.41 The rake held by the boy is inscribed

“1855 C. Brumidi.” The composition is beautifully balanced, and the palette of reds and violet with touches of

blue played against the earthy browns and greens creates

a subtle harmony.

Across from Cincinnatus, in the west lunette, Brumidi

painted a parallel story, Calling of Putnam from the Plow

to the Revolution (fig. 5–12). In 1775, the American Revolutionary hero Israel Putnam rushed to command the

defense of Breed’s Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts

(later called the Battle of Bunker Hill). Brumidi’s composition was based on a lithograph (fig. 5–13). Published

about 1845, the print made an intentional comparison

with Cincinnatus.42

On the south wall, Brumidi created a small framed

illusionistic painting showing the traditional method

of harvesting grain with a sickle, under a trompe l’oeil

relief profile portrait of George Washington, which is

flanked by allegorical figures representing America

(see fig. 5–1). On the opposite wall (see fig. 7–7),

Thomas Jefferson’s relief portrait is over a scene

showing the modern mechanical McCormick reaper,

as suggested by Meigs, who arranged for Brumidi to

examine the machinery.43

Finally, the lower part of the room was painted in

fresco with the illusion of arched carved moldings on the

stone-colored walls.44 These walls were later covered with

oil-based paint, but the original configuration of the

moldings was preserved.

Over the years Brumidi’s first frescoes for the Capitol

were obscured by disfiguring grime and overpaint on the

lunettes; a long crack in the mortar on the north wall also

gave the room high priority for conservation. Soot from

the fireplace under the west lunette darkened the scene of

Putnam. After a small fire, restoration in 1921 included

scrubbing the lunettes with abrasive caustic and heavily

repainting them in oil. The repaint on the lunettes later

darkened further, and the scenes were repainted again in

1930. Fortunately, the ceiling and agricultural scenes

were left basically untouched.45

Conservation treatment carried out in 1987 and

1988 included cleaning the surfaces of grime, repairing the crack, and reattaching flaking paint on the

gilded trompe l’oeil frames (fig. 5–14). The most difficult task was the removal of the heavy overpaint

from the frescoes. A study of the lower walls revealed

that the stone-like colors had been changed, but that

the general pattern of the moldings is original. The

flat areas were repainted to match the original color as

closely as possible to help restore the overall color

harmony of the room, whose beauty can now be more

fully appreciated.

58

Fig. 5–11. Calling of Cincinnatus from the Plow. The fifthcentury B.C. Roman hero at the center of the east lunette, standing by his oxen-drawn plow, receives a helmet and sword from a

white-robed priest. H–144.
59

GETTING ESTABLISHED IN THE NEW WORLD

Fig. 5–12. Calling of Putnam from the Plow to the Revolution.

Brumidi painted the American Revolution hero across the room

from Cincinnatus, with horses instead of oxen, and with a drummer mounted on a rearing horse pointing him toward the battle in

the distance. H–144.

Fig. 5–13. Artist unknown. General Putnam Leaving his Plow

for the Defence of his Country. Brumidi took the major elements

for his lunette from this lithograph. He changed the relative proportions and positions of the figures and simplified the landscape to

create a more harmonious composition. Yale University Art

Gallery. The Mabel Garvan Collection.

Photo: Yale University Art Gallery.

Fig. 5–14. Calling of Putnam

during conservation. Disfiguring grime and overpaint have

been partially removed. H–144.

Photo: Bernard Rabin.
Notes to Chapter 5

1. “Constantino Brumidi,” Daily Critic, c. 1880. Request of CB to

Cardinal Secretary of State Giacomo Antonelli to go to New York, October 19, 1851, ASR/SC.

2. Brumidi’s “Intention to become a Citizen of the United States,”

NARA/RG21.

3. The companion portrait of his wife, Susan Pickering Bemis, is undated. Correspondence in the NMAA curatorial files shows that the

donors believed that Mr. Bemis’s portrait was done from life while Mrs.

Bemis’s portrait was done “from memory and photographs,” Madelon

Chandler Benton to William Truettner, curator, NMAA, March 11, 1976. 

4. Progress is signed and dated 1853. The canvases of Progress and

Plenty have the stamp of a New York preparator.

5. John Black, U.S. Consul to Mexico, certified on the back of Brumidi’s document of intent to become a citizen that it was presented to

him in Mexico City on May 5, 1854, NARA/RG 21.

6. The Academia Nacional de San Carlos de México was chartered in

1785. During a reorganization in 1843, the directorship had been offered to Brumidi’s colleagues Francisco Coghetti and Francisco Podesti.

Among the Italians listed in the exhibition catalogs for the academy are

F. Podesti in 1853 and 1855, F. Coghetti in 1854, and M. Capalti in

1856. Manuel Romera de Terreros, ed., Catalogos de las Exposiciones de

la Antiqua Academia de San Carlos de Mexico, 1850–1898 (Mexico: Imprenta Universitaria, 1963), pp. 134, 186, 161, and 246. 

7. “Brumidi’s Life Work.” Washington Post, April 11, 1879. The

twelve-foot-diameter stone is now in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

8. Manuel Romera de Terreros, editor, Catalogos, 186, 187, 189,

192, 248, 249. In the exhibition opening January 1855, Brumidi exhibited in the section of works sent from outside the academy a full-length

Immaculate Conception, 59 by 40 inches (no. 22); a half-length Virgin

in an oval, copied after Isabey, which was for sale (no. 24); a Virgin with

Christ Child and Saint John, 29 by 23 inches (no. 47); an Assumption

of the Virgin, 100 by 72 inches (no. 73); and a portrait of Señorita

Doña Elena Basadre, 39 by 31 inches (no. 161). In December 1856 he

exhibited a Holy Trinity, 34 by 25 inches (no. 70), and a larger version,

111 by 79 inches (no. 93).

9. List of All Passengers, taken on board the steamship Onzaba, at the

port of Vera Cruz, bound for New Orleans, December 12, 1854,

NARA/RG 36, Passenger Lists and Indexes, New Orleans, courtesy of

Kent Ahrens. 

10. Charles Fairman noted that Brumidi painted portraits of the Norris family and the Joyce family in Washington, Congressional Record,

71st Cong., 2d sess., January 29, 1930, p. 3. No evidence supports

Fairman’s statement that Norris (1825–1869) came with Brumidi from

the Vatican to New York and Washington, since Norris left Rome in late

1851 and was sent to Wisconsin, see Norris’s obituary “In Memoriam,”

National Intelligencer, January 15, 1869. The portraits are now in the

collections of Mr. and Mrs. George Gardner Herrick and others (see

Appendix C). According to Washington city directories of 1850 and

1853, Andrew J. Joyce, blacksmith, is listed at addresses near 14th and

Pennsylvania Avenue.

11. CB petition to leave for the U.S. to paint churches, June 4, 1851,

ASR/SC. John R. G. Hassard, Life of John Hughes (1797–1864): First

Archbishop of New York (New York: Arno Press), 1969, p. 496.

12. Father Benedict Sestini, S.J., (1816–1890) was born in Florence,

entered the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1836, and was ordained there in

1845, so that he and Brumidi may well have been acquainted in Italy.

Father Sestini taught mathematics and astronomy at Georgetown College until 1869, when he moved to the Scholasticate at Woodstock. In

1870, Brumidi gave his friend a painting of the Holy Family in Egypt,

now at St. Aloysius, for the chapel at Woodstock, Maryland. “Fr. Benedict Sestini,” Woodstock Letters, vol. 20, 1890, pp. 259–263, courtesy of

Father George Anderson, S.J. CB to B. Sestini (in Italian), Nov. 11, 1855,

Georgetown University Archives.

13. MCMJ, January 30, 1855 (A–410). Meigs mentions Mr. Stone or

Dr. Stone over a dozen times in his journal; these are plausibly all references to Horatio Stone (1808–1875). Another Washington artist with

the same last name, William James Stone (1798–1865), an engraver

who had studied under Hiram Powers in Italy in 1847, and who might

have met Brumidi then, is a possible but less likely candidate.

14. MCM to J. Durand, editor of The Crayon, October 11, 1856,

AOC/LB.

15. MCMJ, September 23, 1856 (B-297). The suggestion that Meigs

also studied drawing with Robert W. Weir appears in Russell F. Weigley,

“Captain Meigs and the Artists of the Capitol: Federal Patronage of Art

in the 1850’s,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington,

D.C. 1969–1970 (Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society,

1971), p. 293.

16. On February 28, 1854, the painter John Chapman wrote to Gouverneur Kemble from Rome, who forwarded his letter to Meigs. Chapman discussed fresco painting, emphasizing the importance of the

artist’s ability to create a cartoon and downplaying the need for experience in the fresco technique. Meigs copied Chapman’s letter in shorthand and sent the original on, as instructed, to Senator Pearce,

AOC/CO. Emanuel Leutze to MCM, February 14, 1854, AOC/CO.

17. MCMJ, August 28, 1854 (A–225).

18. MCM to Thomas Crawford, August 18, 1853, AOC/LB.

19. Weigley, “Captain Meigs,” pp. 293–95.

20. MCMJ, December 28, 1854 (A–358). 

21. Ibid.

22. MCM to J. Durand, October 11, 1856, AOC/LB.

23. Ibid.; CB to Justin Morrill (copy given to EC), November 30,

1874, AOC/CO.

24. Drawing for lunette, private collection, Rome. Courtesy of Alberta Campitelli.

25. MCMJ, January 24, 1855 (A–400). The oil sketch included a design for the facing lunette which was not used. It showed classical allegorical figures, including one dressed as an Indian to represent America,

similar to the one he painted on the south wall.

26. MCMJ, February 12, 1855 (A–426).

27. MCMJ, February 25, 1855 (A–457).

28. March 17, 1855, Pocket Diary, MCM Papers, LC.

29. MCM to J. Durand, October 11, 1856, AOC/LB.

30. MCMJ, February 21 (A–443), March 17 (A–493), March 20

(A–497), May 19 (A–556), May 29 A–564), April 2 (A–513), 1855.

Other members noted by Meigs who viewed the work were [Lewis D.]

Campbell of Ohio and [E. Wilder] Farley of Maine.

31. MCMJ, March 20, 1855 (A–497).

32. Annual Report of Capt. M.C. Meigs, in charge of the Capitol Extension, October 14, 1855, 34–1, House Ex. Doc. No. 1, pt. 2, pp. 113

and 115.

33. MCMJ, April 7, 1855 (A–517). MCM to [George] Washington

P[arke] Custis, January 19, 1856, AOC/LB.

34. Brumidi had finished the sketch for the four seasons by March 30,

1855. He worked on the cartoons in April, and on April 28, the govern60
enced by the figure of Putnam for the farmer in his design for the House

pediment, according to Thomas P. Somma, The Apotheosis of Democracy,

1908–1916 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1995), p. 28.

43. MCM to a Mr. Engle at the Agricultural warehouse, February 5,

1856: “Be good enough to show Mr Brumidi one of the McCormick

reaping machines. I wish him to introduce a sketch of one in the decoration of the Room of the Comee on agriculture,” AOC/LB.

44. Although Walter later remembered the walls being painted in

“distemper,” TUW to Boulton, February 5, 1863, TUW/PA (AAA reel

4141), the technical study and paint analysis performed by Constance

Silver and Frank Matero in 1988 revealed that the walls were done entirely in fresco and that the designs presently seen follow the original

patterns. The original moldings were left untouched behind the mantel

mirror and were revealed when the mirror was removed for conservation. In 1874 Emmerich Carstens was paid $200 “For painting in Panel

the walls of Agricultural Committee Room, House of Representatives,”

AOC/Annual Repairs U.S. Capitol, 1866–1898, C to F, book 2. This

work may have been a touch-up to the original. The walls were painted

over in oil after a fire in 1920, “Blaze in Capitol Does Damage to Committee Room,” Evening Star, December 18, 1920, part I.

45. Charles Moberly restored the room after a wastebasket caught

fire. “Blaze in Capitol Does Damage to Committee Room,” Evening

Star, December 18, 1920; Will P. Kennedy, “Moberly Restoring Brumidi Decorations at the Capitol,” Evening Star, August 14, 1921. The

second layer of overpaint on the Putnam lunette appears to be by

George Matthews and to date from c. 1930.

ment paid Antonio DeVoto to model for him for five days. By June 6

the cartoons were completed and the scaffold was being erected,

MCMJ, March 30, 1855 (A–508); AOC/Capitol Complex: Vouchers,

1855; MCMJ, June 6, 1855 (A–576).

35. MCMJ, April 11, 1856 (B–159); MCM to Carstens, April 12,

1856, AOC/CO; and “Statement of Cost of finishing Agricultural

Committee Room,” undated, AOC/LB. Louis Franze received $624.00

and Michel Long received $300.00. Painting materials cost $130.50.

The total cost of the work, including payment to Brumidi, was

$3,686.50. 

36. May 26, 1856, Congressional Globe, 34th Cong., 1st. sess., Appendix, p. 619.

37. MCMJ, July 25, 1856 (B–238).

38. MCM to General William Cullom, Clerk of the House of Representatives, March 23, 1857, AOC/LB.

39. J. L. Graves to Jefferson Davis, September 5, 1885, Alabama Department of Archives and History.

40. The significance of the traditional directional orientation of the

seasons was pointed out by Francis V. O’Connor (see chapter 10).

41. MCMJ, March 14, 1855 (A–486) and March 15, 1855 (A–489).

Meigs’s wife Louisa had suggested that Brumidi use their son Monty to

pose for the boy in the corner, who has a very different appearance in

the oil sketch.

42. Laura K. Mills, American Allegorical Prints: Constructing an Identity. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1996, pp. 6–7. Sculptor

Henry Kirke Brown visited Brumidi at work and may have been influ61

GETTING ESTABLISHED IN THE NEW WORLD