I hope when the appropriation will be passed by the Congress the said reflectors, and the gas apparatus will be completed, and I will be ready for my part.
I am always at work but I ask only the bill of August last, and you can assure the Honorable Secretary of the Interior that I never will claim any other bill after this, till my work will be entirely completed.
With respect I am
Your Obedient Servant
C. Brumidi
Apparently negotiations with Brumidi for painting the Dome fresco began with the letter from Tho. U. Walter, “architect of extension and new Dome,” dated August 18, 1862. Brumidi was authorized to proceed on March 11, 1863. On December 3, 1864, Tho. U. Walter wrote that the canopy for the picture over the eye of the Dome was ready for the artist and that Mr. Brumidi was “about to commence to work.” On November 1, 1865, Edward Clark, Architect of the Capitol, reported that the picture over the eye of the Dome was all painted in but that Mr. Brumidi was unwilling to have the scaffolding removed until the plastering was thoroughly dry and the colors had no more “changement.”
On January 9, 1866, Edward Clark wrote the following letter to James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior:
“I have the honor to state that we are now making preparations to take down the scaffolding over the eye of the Dome to reveal Brumidi’s picture. It becomes necessary to have some canvas, or other strong material to place under the scaffolding to catch the dirt, etc., that would otherwise fall to the floor of the Rotunda which might cause inconvenience, perhaps accident.
“It is possible that some old sails might be borrowed from the Navy Yard for that purpose, and I therefore respectfully ask that you make a request to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy for the loan of such as may be necessary for this purpose which will be returned as soon as this work is done.”
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ROOMS
On the walls of the Senate Military Committee Room—now one of the Committee Rooms on Senate Appropriations—are to be found five large frescoes, lunettes in shape, depicting scenes from American history. These pictures are filled with action and American atmosphere and could have been painted only by a lover of American liberty. The artist gave these titles to his five American lunettes: “Boston Massacre,” “Battle of Lexington,” “Death of General Wooster,” “Storming of Stony Point,” and “Washington at Valley Forge.”
The frescoed ceiling in this Senate Committee Room is conventional in design with victors’ wreaths, shields and other emblems of war predominating. Here we have such outstanding color combinations as to lead many Brumidi enthusiasts to vote this ceiling the Capitol’s best. In this room also are six outstanding panels, rich in color and different in design, displaying American arms of different periods. Never were guns, pistols, sabers, tomahawks, and flintlock rifles displayed with so much beauty and elegance—and the sword across the shield in the center is said to be a copy of one owned by Washington. (Keim attributes these panels to another Capitol artist.)