Thomas Jefferson’s Life Mask Incident

It’s likely that you have never heard of the artist John H.I. Browere. Thomas Jefferson may have wished he’d never heard of him, either.

In October 1825, when the former president was 82, Browere visited Monticello to take a life mask of Jefferson. It seems the artist wasn’t as highly skilled at the process as he made the Jefferson family believe. When he met with them he assured the entire masking would only take 20 minutes.

Browere planned to do the bust in sections, but at the last minute he changed his mind, deciding to do the entire bust in one continuous process. He started with the shoulders and neck – that alone took an hour.

Then he attempted Jefferson’s head. Breathing straws were inserted in the nose, and a coating of oil applied to the skin to keep the plaster from sticking. Quickly, the sculptor brushed on layer after layer of warm plaster – speed was essential because the mixture had to harden before Jefferson’s facial expression could change from a stoic gaze to that a person concerned about his ability to breathe.

But the most difficult aspect of the modeling was the mask’s removal. It seems Browere failed to apply enough oil to Jefferson’s face, so the plaster stuck to his skin. It took a mallet and chisel to break it off in chunks. In a letter Jefferson wrote a few days later to his friend, James Madison, he said, “there became a real danger that the ears would separate from the head sooner than from the plaster.”

The entire process was probably harder on Jefferson’s family than on the man himself. Frightened family members watched in horror as the sculptor thumped and pried, breaking away pieces of plaster. Grandson George headed into Charlottesville soon after the ordeal and spread the tale of terror to a crowd of wide-eyed townspeople. Soon newspapers elaborated the story and reported that Jefferson had almost been suffocated and his arm broken.

Ironically, Jefferson never mentioned his displeasure to the artist. He actually invited Browere to stay for dinner and spend the night at Monticello, and later he and the sculptor joked about the day’s proceedings. However, Jefferson would write afterwards, “I now bid adieu for ever to busts and even portraits.”

This photo of the resulting bust of Jefferson was taken in 1939. Browere’s completed bronze work of the 3rd president may be viewed at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

Public Domain

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