Color Reproductions of Brumidi Frescoes in the United States Capitol
The Artist’s Compensation
Preserved today in the Capitol’s Brumidi file is a statement signed by Brumidi in 1874, but written in the third person “Relative to his Employment at the Capitol.” A portion of that statement follows:
“At one time Brumidi was employed in decorating the Capitol at the same compensation allowed Congressmen, and when that compensation was increased that benefit was also extended to him. At the breaking out of the Civil War Captain Meigs was promoted, and all the work at the Capitol was suspended but Senator Foot, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, as an exception retained Brumidi at work, and placed his name on the roll of the Senate official employees.
“After the war some paintings were completed under the orders of the Secretary of the Interior, and the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, executed by contract under the control of the Architect of the Capitol, but many long interruptions occurred, and much valuable time was lost for want of available appropriations.
“Now many panels remain empty, disfiguring the elaborate ornaments and gilded mouldings around them, which sooner or later must be completed; also that large frieze in the Rotunda sketched by order of Captain Meigs before the war, and intended to represent the history of the country.
“The artist Brumidi humbly proposes to proceed with the work on the economical system of daily wages as the only manner to avoid the inconvenience of interruptions for want of available appropriations.”
Known evidence seems to indicate that Brumidi died poor. This has led many to believe that the Government of the United States did not pay him sufficiently for his services. Even George C. Hazelton stated in 1903, “The late artist’s designs (for the frieze) were promptly appropriated without remuneration to his family for the thought and labor which they contained.” Were it not for the fact, already quoted, from the Report of the Architect of the Capitol for October 1, 1881, that the designs for these sections of the frieze were left by Brumidi only in small size and that Mr. Costaggini had to make the full sized cartoons, we might not recognize Hazelton’s error of statement.
It is well to remember that Mr. Brumidi was working on a per diem basis ($10.00 a day) during the last few years of his life when his labors were interrupted by sickness. It is well to remember also that the artist worked for $8.00 per day during the years 1855 and 1856. During 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, and part of 1861, he worked also on a per diem basis, but at a salary of $10.00 per day. Monthly vouchers for these years, averaging about two hundred sixty dollars per month and signed “C. Brumidi,” are preserved today by the Architect’s office. In fact, most of the money paid the artist by the Government of the United States during his twenty-five years of service is recorded in voucher form and each voucher signed “C. Brumidi.”
From 1861 to 1872 were Brumidi’s best years financially, these being the years he received contract prices for his paintings.
On March 11, 1863, Mr. Brumidi signed a contract with the Government to paint the Canopy of the Dome for $40,000.00. (This contract is preserved in the Capitol Brumidi file.) A portion of a letter written by the Secretary of the Interior, dated November 6, 1863, refers to this contract:
“In March last an agreement was entered into with Mr. C. Brumidi for painting the canopy over the eye of the new dome of the Capitol in real fresco at an entire cost, including the cartoons and every other expense of not over $40,000, payment to be made in monthly bills as the work progresses, not to exceed $2,000 each.”
According to the old vouchers in the Architect’s office, the artist was actually paid $39,500 (chiefly in $2,000 installments) between 1863 and 1866, five hundred dollars having been withheld until the canopy should be declared finished. Brumidi died before this five hundred dollars was paid.
The years 1872, 1873, and 1874 were still contract years, but they were lean years, as only six vouchers totaling $2,350 can be found that were issued to the artist during those three years, and we find no Brumidi vouchers in the architect’s file for the years 1875 and 1876.
With the beginning of 1877, however, Brumidi was evidently re-employed at the Capitol at the rate of $10 per day as shown by two old “Time Books” which indicate month by month the hours worked and the total amount earned by the old artist from January 1877 up to the time of his death on February 19, 1880. These Time Books consistently carried Mr. Brumidi as fresco artist among its employed personnel of laborers, masons, plasterers, finishers, and painters. A Brumidi letter written to Architect Clark July 16, 1879, is the artist’s own verification that the Government of the United States paid him consistently for art work during his last years when much of that work had to be done in his studio because of failing health. The 1879 letter follows:
“I received yesterday the visit of Mr. McTynchon, and I was glad to show him the progress of my work in the cartoon for the Dome, that your kindness permits me to proceed it at my studio at home.
“I have completed the cartoon of the Treaty of William Penn, also the retouching of the cartoon of Pizzarro, making the light permanent with glue as I did at the large cartoon of Columbus.
“I have commenced the cartoon of the settlement of New England.
“I hope you and your family will enjoy your summer residence, and I will continue to progress with my work hoping to give you the desired satisfaction.
“With my best regards to Mrs. Clark, and family, I remain”
C. Brumidi
It seems reasonably certain that the Architect of the Capitol and other friends of Brumidi in the Congress of the United States at the time of Brumidi’s death wanted the old artist to have every dollar due him for the Capitol decorations, even to the extent of using the $200—apparently earlier appropriated for Dome scaffolding construction—to defray funeral expenses. Then, too, there is one voucher in the Brumidi voucher collection, dated February 19, 1880, the day the artist died, “for 13 days’ services as artist at $10.00—$130.00.” This voucher is not endorsed.
It is evidently true, also, that Brumidi died poor. In the following letter to Architect Clark, dated only five months before his death, and only two days before he fell from the frieze scaffolding we have the picture of a lonely artist facing lean years with fear—and a bit of remorse:
Washington, D. C., September 29, 1879
“I received the visit of Dr. Taylor and I hope to obtain much benefit by his prescription; but my sickness proceeds more by the mental than physical weakness, because my mind is much worried by the terrible future prospect of starvation as soon as my bad health prevents me to do the daily work, having saved nothing in the past when the fortune provided me with very profitable works.
Probably you know that when the superintendent Meigs was promoted as Quartermaster General the Senator Foot, President pro tempore of the Senate, put my name in the roll of the employee and was continuing to work, and the decorations of the basement corridor of the Senate was made in that time at the roll pay.
Now, sickly and old, with 26 years’ service as an artist in the Capitol, I ask the comfort to be replaced in the roll as a reward for my work and gain again the tranquility of the mind.”
C. Brumidi
Four days after the artist’s death a bill was introduced into the Senate of the United States which read as follows:
“Be it enacted.... That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to the heirs of Constantino Brumidi, deceased, the sum of $500, that being the amount reserved from the last voucher paid him for painting in fresco the picture on the canopy of the Dome of the Capitol; and also to pay to said heirs the sum of $200 to defray the funeral expenses of said deceased; said payments to be made out of moneys appropriated by an act approved March 3, 1879.”
Upon introducing this bill, Senator Voorhees of Indiana made the following explanation:
“Mr. President, the reason for the introduction of this bill grows out of the following facts: The Government made a contract with Mr. Brumidi for the painting, in fresco, on the canopy of the Dome of the Capitol. The scaffolding necessary to enable the artist to do his work was furnished by the Government. When the painting was finished and the scaffolding removed the Secretary of the Interior withheld the sum of $500 of the contract price as a guarantee for any retouching which the work might need after it dried out and became thoroughly seasoned to the air. This amount was held back, to be paid to Mr. Brumidi for such future attention on his part as the painting might be found to require.
“He was at all times in readiness to comply with the wishes of the Government on this subject. No scaffolding, however, was ever replaced on which to work in the Canopy of the Dome, nor was he ever called on by the officials having this matter in charge to give his painting there any further attention.... Both branches of Congress made the following provision in the sundry civil act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880:
“‘To pay C. Brumidi for retouching and blending the picture in fresco on the Canopy of the Dome of the Capitol and for constructing a scaffolding under said picture, $700.’
“The money thus appropriated has been available nearly a year, yet no steps were taken by the proper authorities to enable Mr. Brumidi to ascend again into the Canopy of the Dome of this Capitol, and none now ever will be. In the exact and legal fulfillment of a contract it is our duty to pay this sum of $500 to his heirs. On this point I conceive there can be no difference of opinion. I have ventured, however, in the bill just introduced to ask Congress to apply the remaining $200 of the appropriation of March 3, 1879, to the payment of the funeral expenses of the great artist who has just passed away.”
Senator Morrill of Vermont followed Senator Voorhees on the Floor of the Senate on that 24th day of February back in 1880 to add his sanction to the bill introduced. Said Senator Morrill:
“Mr. President, I desire to express my hearty approval of the measure proposed by the Senator from Indiana. It is only justice—and that coldly measured—that we should now pay all we ever promised to one who can make no further demands upon us, but whose works will live to remind us of his twenty-five years of most valuable service in a branch of art where he stood on this continent confessedly foremost, whether among foreign or native artists. He leaves a daughter in Italy dependent upon a regular remittance from her father, and he leaves an adopted son beginning to be taught in the line of his father’s vocation, but not so far advanced as to give support. I hope it will be the pleasure of the Senate unanimously to pass the bill whenever it comes up for action.”
Senator Morrill who made the above speech in the Senate of the United States is the same Senator Morrill to whom Brumidi referred in the following letter written to Mr. Clark, Architect of the Capitol, and dated November 30, 1874:
“The Thanksgiving day I received the kind visit of Senator Morrill at the Providence Hospital. On that occasion I gave him a paper containing the information of the time I was working in the Capitol by daily wages and also retained at work by Senator Foot, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds in the time of the war.
“The annexed paper is the copy of that I presented to Senator Morrill. I would have submitted it for your examination but in the many times I have been in your office I had not the chance to find you, nor in your house some afternoon.
“Mr. Morrill told me, that I would have work at the Capitol after the recess of the Congress, but about my proposition, he cannot tell me anything at present, but will take this matter in consideration and he asked me what will be my demand about the wages. I replied that before the war I had ten dollars in gold, that was a sufficient wage at the time but now all the wages are generally increased, I hope to obtain the same consideration.”
C. Brumidi
According to endorsed vouchers and Time Book entries preserved by the Government of the United States in the Architect’s office of the Capitol, actual payment in money was made to Mr. Brumidi of something over $80,700 during a period of twenty-five years. While an average of $3,200 a year from 1855 to 1880 was not over-payment for Mr. Brumidi’s services, yet, by the same reasoning it cannot in truth be termed under-payment for those same years.