1. How it all started
I must admit that up until a few weeks ago I never knew that there was even a controversy over the photo of Joseph Smith Jr., which is owned by the Library of Congress. Maybe I should first start by explaining where this crazy journey began for me. About twelve years ago, while visiting my grandmother, the conversation of genealogy came up. She handed me a book of various copied journal accounts of some of our pioneer ancestors. I found looking through it very fascinating and intriguing, and then I turned to a rather odd page. There were yellow newspaper images and a few small stories about the LDS Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. In the corner on the page, sealed under a small plastic cover, sat a photo. The thin silver-gray photo was matted on a slightly larger piece of card stock and had been well preserved. Written underneath this photo were the words “Copy of the Original Tintype”. I asked my grandmother about the curious photo. She explained that it was a photo of Joseph Smith Jr. and that she had received it many years prior. It was her belief that during a photo session, possibly by Lucien Foster, two photos were taken. I believe that she said the LDS Church had one of them and that the other belonged to a non-LDS man.
Looking back now, I realize that my dear grandmother may have been mistaken. Not about the image in the photo, but about whether anyone else was in possession of this or any other actual unedited image copied from a daguerreotype picture of the Prophet. Attempting to learn the truth, I contacted the LDS Historical Library a couple of weeks ago. I told them of the carte-de-visite photo and what I believed it to be. Hesitant to send the entire image digitally, I sent a sliced version made in Photoshop. A couple of days later, I received an email .
They believed what I had was a carte de visite of a sketch by the Utah artist Danquart Weggeland. As an artist myself, this did not sit well with me. I found the picture I believed they were referring to and did a digital comparison in Photoshop. I found that the lines of the drawing did not match at all, and the style of hair did not either.
For further comparison, I used the image from the Library of Congress. I noticed that indeed the two images matched except for some artistic editing and enhancement work that had clearly been done. I noted that the artist had done some painted work on Joseph’s eyes, especially his left eye (pictured on the right side of the photo). Perhaps it was done to balance his face and make it appear not so uneven. The artist also cleaned the lines of his jacket for a more tailored look and touched up areas of the photo that appeared to be overexposed. I believe that, in doing this, they changed the true nature of his face and overall appearance. Having done portrait work for many years, I know that it is mostly minor details that create the true likeness.
Now again the true nature of the Library of Congress photo comes into play. Some believe it is just a reproduction of the painting owned by the RLDS Church and possibly painted by the artist named Majors. I thought in that instance I would do some comparisons. First, I compared one of just the left eye from my photo, the Library of Congress photo, and a picture of the RLDS painting (in that order from the bottom up). Notice the middle picture has an overexaggerated iris, and the pupil appears slightly off-center. I believe this is the work of a photo editing artist. The lower lid has an unnatural plunge to compensate for the exaggeration. The lines of the upper lid remain the same, although darkened. The top eye is from the RLDS painting, and the iris appears to be more in proportion, as well as the lower lid. The upper lid, however, has been given a different square-like appearance, especially on the outside corner.
The second comparison of the RLDS painting and my photo shows that the entire jacket outline has been changed and lowered. This is again the work of an artist to create more symmetry and elongate the painting. It appears that the original daguerreotype may have been used as a reference for the RLDS painting. The Library of Congress photo appears to be a post-edited version of the photo I was given. I am again waiting to hear back from the LDS Church History Library as far as the information they have acquired. I will post more later when information becomes available.
Please note: The image header on my blog is copyrighted by me, the artist.
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