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
HORATIO GATES
Profiled midst laurel, fruit, flowers, and birds, Horatio Gates is one of twenty American profiles painted by Brumidi, each set in its own panel, on the basement walls of the Senate Annex. The many bird decorations used to adorn these walls are so accurate that bird enthusiasts have been known to identify as many as sixty species. Senator Voorhees of Indiana knew of Brumidi’s love for birds and made reference to it in this manner: “He (Brumidi) loved these birds as a father loves his children and he often lingered in their midst as if a strong tie bound him to them.”
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.