On the 2d of January, 1822, he writes:  “I have commenced to-day taking the likenesses of the members.  I find them not only willing to sit, but apparently esteeming it an honor.  I shall take seventy of them and perhaps more; all if possible.  I find the picture is becoming the subject of conversation, and every day gives me greater encouragement.  I shall paint it on part of the great canvas when I return home.  It will be eleven feet by seven and a half feet....  It will take me until October next to complete it.”

The room which he painted was then the Hall of Representatives, but is now Statuary Hall.  As a work of art the painting is excellent and is highly esteemed by artists of the present day.  It contains eighty portraits.

His high expectations of gaining much profit from its exhibition and of selling it for a large sum were, however, doomed to disappointment.  It did not attract the public attention which he had anticipated and it proved a financial loss to him.  It was finally sold to an Englishman, who took it across the ocean, and it was lost sight of until, after twenty-five years, it was found by an artist friend, Mr. F.W.  Edmonds, in New York, where it had been sent from London.  It was in a more or less damaged condition, but was restored by Morse.  It eventually became the property of the late Daniel Huntington, who loaned it to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, where it now hangs.[1]

[Footnote 1:  This painting has recently been purchased by the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery.]

I find no more letters of special interest of the year 1822, but Mr. Prime has this to record:  “In the winter of 1822, notwithstanding the great expenses to which Mr. Morse had been subjected in producing this picture, and before he had realized anything from its exhibition, he made a donation of five hundred dollars to the library fund of Yale College; probably the largest donation in proportion to the means of the giver which that institution ever received.”

The corporation, by vote, presented the thanks of the board in the following letter:—­

YALE COLLEGE,
December 4th, 1822.

DEAR SIR,—­I am directed by the corporation of this college to present to you the thanks of the board for your subscription of five hundred dollars for the enlargement of the library.  Should this example of liberality be generally imitated by the friends of the institution, we should soon have a library creditable to the college and invaluable to men of literary and philosophic research.

With respectful and grateful acknowledgment,

Your obedient servant,
JEREMAIAH DAY.

While he was at home in New Haven in the early part of 1823 he sought orders for portraits, and that he was successful in at least one instance is evidenced by the following letter:—­

Mr. D.C.  DeForest’s compliments to Mr. Morse.  Mr. DeForest desires to have his portrait taken such as it would have been six or eight years ago, making the necessary calculation for it, and at the same time making it a good likeness in all other respects.