The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 91, July 1987 - April, 1988 Page: 368

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

This engraving of Stephen F. Austin (91/4 X 71/2 in., courtesy San Jacinto Mu-
seum of History Association) was commissioned by Guy M. Bryan as a present
for his grandfather. It was copied after the original William Howard water-
color by artist Charles K. Burt (1823-1892) of New York, who embellished the
picture by making it a full-length portrait and adding the hat, rug, and books at
Austin's feet. When Eugene C. Barker published his monumental biography
of Austin in 1925, he included a reproduction of this engraving, saying that the
miniature by Howard on which it was based had been destroyed in 1915.
Pauline C. Pinckney apparently accepted this story, concluding that the picture
in the Barker Texas History Center is "a somewhat less interesting painting ...
made ... from the original" (Pinckney, Painting in Texas, 6). This may be incor-
rect, for the print seems to be copied after the painting shown on the cover of
this issue.
Guy M. Bryan still possessed the original Howard portrait in 1891, when he
wrote Mrs. W. M. W. Compton that she would find it "suspended in the parlor
of my residence." It was this same picture that he sent to Elisabet Ney as she
prepared to work on the sculpture of Austin in 1893. Miss Ney wrote Bryan:
"The other day your son sent to me a colored likeness, small, said to be the
original of the engraving which I have from your brother M. Bryan. It is im-
possible to be the original. The engraving is so much more correct in anatomy,
represents the whole of the figure, the col. likeness only half. Besides, on the
back of the painting (after removing the wooden plate) is written is 'painted by
Howard.' That is no french name." (Miss Ney was apparently under the im-
pression that Austin's portrait was the work of a French artist.) (Ney to Bryan,
Aug. 3, 1893, Ney Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas,
Austin). The three-quarter-length portrait shown on the cover seems to match
Ney's description of the picture that Bryan sent to her in 1893, except that it
has no name on the verso. It is unclear as to why Barker said it had been
destroyed.

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