I was originally commissioned to paint this portrait of Joseph Smith for the Morehouse MLK International Chapel in Atlanta, Georgia, where the original painting now resides. The title, Sunset on Nauvoo, carries deep significance. In 1844, the Nauvoo Temple was only half completed. Joseph Smith never saw it finished before his martyrdom in June of that year. In this sense, the sun was setting not only on his life, but also on the era of the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo. Shortly after his death, the Saints began their westward journey.
My intention in capturing a faithful likeness and pose of the Prophet Joseph was to portray him as strong yet gentle — a spiritual leader of conviction and compassion. I worked from limited visual references: a photograph of his death mask and an early painted portrait created during his lifetime, along with other contemporary renderings which I observed and studied. It was a difficult task, to say the least. With much prayer and study, I developed a composition that felt right. I repainted his face eight times until, at last, I felt Joseph looking back at me and knew — that’s him. As one viewer expressed upon first seeing the painting: “I have seen many portrayals of the Prophet Joseph, but this is a portrait of the man, Joseph Smith.”
In the lower left of the painting, flowers grow at his feet — Jacob’s Ladder, a flower that grows throughout Illinois. The name references the vision recorded in Genesis 28, when Jacob, sleeping at Bethel, saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. The ladder symbolizes God’s plan of eternal progression — a divine connection between earth and heaven.
To Latter-day Saints, Jacob’s ladder represents the path to exaltation. Its rungs symbolize the covenants and saving ordinances of the gospel: beginning with faith in Jesus Christ and baptism, followed by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and culminating in sacred temple covenants. The Nauvoo Temple was the first temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where the full saving ordinances were performed.
In the composition, the temple rises above the flowers — visually echoing Jacob’s ladder — leading the eye upward toward the house of the Lord, where those sacred ordinances are performed.
In Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, he speaks of climbing a ladder: one must begin at the bottom and ascend step by step until reaching the top, learning gospel principles and receiving sacred ordinances along the way. This imagery beautifully parallels both the flowers below and the temple above — a visual testimony of covenant progression and eternal hope.
https://www.pictorem.com/2678796/joseph-smith-sunset-on-nauvoo/
Joseph Smith “SUNSET ON NAUVOO”
I was originally commissioned to paint this portrait of Joseph Smith for the Morehouse MLK International Chapel in Atlanta, Georgia, where the original painting now resides. The title, Sunset on Nauvoo, carries deep significance. In 1844, the Nauvoo Temple was only half completed. Joseph Smith never saw it finished before his martyrdom in June of that year. In this sense, the sun was setting not only on his life, but also on the era of the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo. Shortly after his death, the Saints began their westward journey.
My intention in capturing a faithful likeness and pose of the Prophet Joseph was to portray him as strong yet gentle — a spiritual leader of conviction and compassion. I worked from limited visual references: a photograph of his death mask and an early painted portrait created during his lifetime, along with other contemporary renderings which I observed and studied. It was a difficult task, to say the least. With much prayer and study, I developed a composition that felt right. I repainted his face eight times until, at last, I felt Joseph looking back at me and knew — that’s him. As one viewer expressed upon first seeing the painting: “I have seen many portrayals of the Prophet Joseph, but this is a portrait of the man, Joseph Smith.”
In the lower left of the painting, flowers grow at his feet — Jacob’s Ladder, a flower that grows throughout Illinois. The name references the vision recorded in Genesis 28, when Jacob, sleeping at Bethel, saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. The ladder symbolizes God’s plan of eternal progression — a divine connection between earth and heaven.
To Latter-day Saints, Jacob’s ladder represents the path to exaltation. Its rungs symbolize the covenants and saving ordinances of the gospel: beginning with faith in Jesus Christ and baptism, followed by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and culminating in sacred temple covenants. The Nauvoo Temple was the first temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where the full saving ordinances were performed.
In the composition, the temple rises above the flowers — visually echoing Jacob’s ladder — leading the eye upward toward the house of the Lord, where those sacred ordinances are performed.
In Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, he speaks of climbing a ladder: one must begin at the bottom and ascend step by step until reaching the top, learning gospel principles and receiving sacred ordinances along the way. This imagery beautifully parallels both the flowers below and the temple above — a visual testimony of covenant progression and eternal hope.
By Connie Lynn Reilly