Dan Weggeland never saw Joseph Smith.But the Norwegian-born artists portrayal of the Prophet was the image of choice for modern-day scholars who know the LDS Church founder as well as anyone can these days.Since Nov. 24, copies of the first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers have been arriving from the Church Historian's Press. The project, which received official approval from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more than seven years ago, is an expansive, long-term effort to collect, transcribe and publish all documents produced or owned by Joseph Smith. Thirty volumes are planned over the next 15 years, and as the milestone of the first published volume approached, project members had to settle on a cover image that would best represent their current and future work. Selecting a face to represent the words they've so meticulously and painstakingly compiled was a key decision for the scholars, who took into account everything from the artist's era and credentials to the Prophet's personality.They chose Weggeland's work."This looks like what people said about Joseph Smith," said Jeff Johnson, program archivist for the project and the man charged with selecting the image for the first and all future volumes.According to Johnson, the decision-making process took place over a couple of months and involved several hours of discussion. Among those involved in the dialogue were Richard Turley, assistant church historian and recorder and a member of the project's editorial board; Ronald Esplin, the project's managing editor; and general editor Dean Jessee, whose pioneering work on Joseph Smith's documents established a foundation for what would become a collective effort called the Joseph Smith Papers. Other scholars on the project also offered opinion and expertise.The scholars established a criteria for determining a portrait they could have confidence in — one that was authentic and represented the Prophet in a historically accurate manner. Johnson says he went through several hundred images.Eventually, he narrowed his list to 10 images and sought feedback from the project's historians. Among the candidates were Alvin Gittins' 1959 painting, an iconic image familiar to most Latter-day Saints; a modern pencil drawing by Utah artist William Whitaker; an engraving by Frederick Piercy; a profile by Nauvoo artist Sutcliffe Maudsley; and two works by Weggeland, an oil painting and the drawing that was ultimately chosen.Several modern works were considered, but the images that received the most consideration had some years behind them."We wanted the image selected to have some element of historical ambience to it," Turley said. "So we chose an image that is not terribly familiar to many church members, that has as its basis images that we think are historically accurate, but also fits nicely into our (book) design.""It's not a contemporaneous image, but it is a historical image."Johnson, who was the director of the Utah state archives before joining the project five years ago, says they focused on portraits that weren't too far removed from Joseph Smith's life, which ended in the 1844 martyrdom at Carthage, Ill."We're publishing his papers, and we're publishing originals, so we wanted the image to go along with the original documents," he said.There are several obstacles, however, in getting too close to the Prophet's era.As Turley pointed out, "there are no confirmed, 100-percent confirmed, photographs of Joseph Smith." Also, there were only two artists who had the opportunity of painting or drawing the Prophet from life, according to Johnson.The only truly accurate likeness of Joseph Smith is from his death mask, Jessee says. He referred to comments made in 1894 by Bathsheba W. Smith, a former president of the Relief Society who knew the Prophet and lived until 1910. During a celebration of Joseph Smith's life at the old Sixteenth Ward meetinghouse, Bathsheba Smith commented that the paintings of the church founder hanging on the walls of the chapel were "but little better than cartoons," Jessee wrote in a 1995 edition of BYU Studies. Those comments were taken under consideration in the selection process, Jessee says.One of the artists who did portray Joseph Smith from life was Sutcliffe Maudsley, an English convert and a pattern-maker who emigrated to Nauvoo and there produced several images of the Prophet. Maudsley's portrait of Lt. General Joseph Smith in military uniform was one of the finalists considered for the volume cover — but his work ultimately "didn't work" for the scholars, according to Esplin."We didn't have something painted in life that everyone had confidence in and loved," Esplin said.Maudsley's from-life portrait, however, helped provide a reference point for future portrayals of the Prophet. Several artists who had never seen the church founder in life patterned their depictions after Maudsley's profile, according to Johnson.Weggeland was one of several artists to follow the profile template.Born Danquart Anthon Weggeland in Christiania, Norway, in 1827, the artist was well-trained before arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1862. According to an entry in the Dictionary of Utah Art written by Robert S. Olpin, Weggeland was an apprentice in Copenhagen and studied at the Danish Royal Academy. He converted to Mormonism around 1855 and served as an LDS Church missionary in England from 1857 to 1861, after which he emigrated for America. Before traveling to Utah, Weggeland spent time in the Eastern United States learning from two prominent portrait artists, Daniel Huntington and George P.A. Healy.According to Olpin, Weggeland was "a great teacher of painting" who helped train a new generation of Utah artists. He founded the Deseret Academy and became known as the "father of Utah art." Weggeland produced murals that decorated temples in Salt Lake City, St. George, Logan and Manti, and was one of the artists encouraged by President Brigham Young to produce images of the church's founder."When he arrived in Utah, he realized that there was a need for images of Joseph Smith," Johnson said.Weggeland's artistic abilities and his presence in a community among Latter-day Saints who had known the Prophet made his work ideal for the project. His skillful images emerged from an environment where people were familiar with Joseph Smith, Esplin says. Scholars are unsure of when the drawing was produced, but Esplin suspects that Weggeland, who died in 1918, finished this particular image before 1900.According to Johnson, the absence of color in the pencil drawing wasn't a concern. In fact, he feels the black-and-white image is in harmony with a project that focuses on well-aged documents."I guess for me it seemed more period not having it in color," Johnson said. "I guess that's just our view because most of the things we see (are not in color)."The only drawback, Esplin said, is the direction of the profile. It would be preferable to have Joseph facing the inside of the book, but instead, Weggeland's drawing has him looking left."We wished we could flip it," Esplin joked.And in Jessee's mind, it's not perfect. He maintains that the death mask is the best rendition, and that there are some variations between it and the Weggeland image."People can make up their own minds as to how effective this image is," Jessee said. "I think his rendition is probably a little more careful than some of the others I've seen, but you can look at that and make that decision yourself. … I think you can see some difference there."But the scholars feel that Weggeland's image is representative of what is known about the Prophet."We feel like it's pretty true to Joseph," Esplin said. "It was seen by people who knew Joseph, and therefore we have a little more confidence in that."According to Esplin, the details found in the clothing, features and profile of the drawing are "what we know about him." Johnson says the portrait also conveys the character of the Prophet."I felt like Weggeland had captured Joseph Smith's presence and the feeling that people had when they met him," Johnson said. "Joseph Smith was very charismatic, and it was hard for people who knew Joseph to see an image that captured their feelings toward him."
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