SALT LAKE CITY — Two new exhibitions at the Museum of Church History and Art feature artifacts, memorabilia and art relating to historic Nauvoo, Illinois, and the Nauvoo Temple. The exhibits, Early Images of Historic Nauvoo and Sutcliffe Maudsley: Nauvoo Portrait Artist, will be on view starting Saturday, 20 April 2002, and will continue throughout the summer and early fall.
Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are anticipating the dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple in June of this year. The new museum exhibits in Salt Lake City are timely and can provide rare perspectives of early Nauvoo.
Early Images of Historic Nauvoo celebrates this once thriving Latter-day Saint community nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River with original 19th-century paintings, engravings, photographs and drawings. The city's most significant architectural landmark, the Nauvoo Temple, is highlighted in many of the works.
According to curator Richard G. Oman, only a handful of 19th-century paintings exist of the city of Nauvoo. One of them, included in the exhibit, is an oil painting created by an unknown artist between 1848 and 1850, after the Saints fled west. Also displayed is a photographic print from a Lucian Foster's1846 daguerreotype (a photo produced on a metal plate). It is the only known photograph of the city taken while Nauvoo served as Church headquarters.
Publishers in the eastern United States and Europe were eager for images of the abandoned religious metropolis, Oman said. They used engravings made from paintings and drawings, and frequently used images of the destroyed Nauvoo temple to create a dramatic image of a deserted city.
"The exhibit features historical images of the Nauvoo Temple that helped architects reconstruct the temple," he explained. Among the most useful of the early sources, Oman said, are the original architectural drawings by William Weeks and an 1853 engraving of the temple ruins by Frederick Piercy.
Oman said an 1847 daguerreotype of the Nauvoo Temple provided one of the clearest visual records of the temple's exterior appearance. "Original stone pieces, rafter fragments and door keys have been preserved as mementos and represent the physical documentation of the destroyed temple," said Oman, observing that examples of memorabilia are also on display in the exhibition.
Early Images of Historic Nauvoo will be displayed in the museum's main lobby through 17 November 2002.
"Another significant exhibit opening at the museum features the art of Sutcliffe Maudsley, one of early Nauvoo's most prominent and prolific artists," said Glen M. Leonard, director of the Museum of Church History and Art.
Sutcliffe Maudsley: Nauvoo Portrait Artist includes extremely rare portraits of the Prophet Joseph Smith, members of the prophet's family and other residents of Nauvoo. Maudsley's portraits have become important artistic and historical records. He painted from life some of the only known original images of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
Guest curator Steven Bule, an art historian and associate professor of art and humanities at Utah Valley State College, said that Maudsley originally worked in the textile mills in Lancashire County, England, where he designed patterns that were printed on calico cloth. He was converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by some of the first missionaries to England and immigrated to Nauvoo in 1842.
Within months of his arrival, Maudsley prepared a full-figure watercolor of Lieutenant General Joseph Smith for a map of the city and painted many other portraits of Nauvoo residents.
This first profile of Joseph Smith became the prototype for multiple copies later made by Maudsley. The exhibit includes a half dozen Maudsley drawings and several lithographic versions of Joseph Smith in nearly the exact pose.
"The exhibit features several beautiful sets of companion portraits," Bule said. "Among them are profiles of Joseph and Emma Smith, Hyrum and Mary Fielding Smith, and George Albert and Bathsheba Bigler Smith."
"Companion portraits were common in the 19th century before photography became popular," Bule said. "They were a symbol of the love and union shared by a couple and were prominently displayed in the home."
Maudsley also painted portraits of three of the children of Joseph and Emma Smith. On display are a rare portrait of Frederick G.W. Smith as a boy of about 8 years and a copy of a watercolor of Alexander Hale Smith standing with his mother, Emma. Maudsley also painted a now lost portrait of Joseph Smith III.
"Some of Maudsley's best portraits are of people we have not yet been able to identify," said Bule. "These people may have been residents of Nauvoo who commissioned the portraits or members of the Maudsley family. We simply don't know. Perhaps museum visitors who see these portraits will be able to help us identify them."
All of the known portraits by Sutcliffe Maudsley are represented in the exhibit either as originals or as photographic copies.
Sutcliffe Maudsley: Nauvoo Portrait Artist is located in the newly renovated Theater Foyer gallery on the lower level of the museum. The exhibit will be on display through 10 November 2002.
Both exhibits can be seen at the museum any day of the week. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday, Sunday and most holidays from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The museum is located at 45 North West Temple Street in downtown Salt Lake City and just one-half block north of the Temple Square TRAX station. Admission is free.
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