Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/408

hero's countenance. But this production did not give satisfaction; the people of Charleston desired a "matter-of-fact likeness, calm, tranquil, peaceful," and Washington sat again, for such a picture. In 1791 and 1792 Trumbull painted a great number of portraits, among which were those of John Jay, Temple Franklin, Mrs. Washington (with a full rosy face, and in a white dress, and cap — very matronly), Nelly Custis, Sophia Chew, Harriet Chew, Cornelia Schuyler (a sister of Mrs. Hamilton, afterward married to Mr. Van Rensselaer), Julia Seymour, who was a celebrated beauty, and two daughters of Jeremiah Wadsworth.

In 1791 Mr. Archibald Robertson, of Aberdeen, arrived in this country, bearing from the Earl of Buchan an introductory letter to Washington, and a box made from the oak tree which sheltered Sir William Wallace, after the battle of Falkirk, which the Goldsmith's Company of Edinburgh had previously presented to the earl. Mr. Robertson painted a very good portrait of the President, which was sent to Scotland, by Mr. Lear, in 1794, and he afterward pursued his profession with success for many years in New York.

Giuseppe Ceracchi, one of the most eminent of contemporary sculptors, had conceived in Rome a design for a monument of the American revolution, and coming to Philadelphia, in 1791, he prepared a model of it, which was much admired. It was to be of statuary marble, one hundred feet high, and to cost but thirty thousand dollars. This sum, however, could not be obtained, and Ceracchi returned to Europe, and was subsequently put to death for an attempt to assassinate Napoleon. While here he executed busts of Washington and many other distinguished characters. He invited Dr. Hugh Williamson to sit for one, and that person made himself appear exceedingly ridiculous by the puerile manner in which he declined the compliment.

In a collection which I have made of more than sixty engraved