History is messy. Honestly, when you look at a drawing of Jefferson Davis, you aren't just looking at a likeness of a man; you’re looking at a weapon of propaganda. It’s wild how much the medium changed based on who was holding the charcoal or the etching needle. During the mid-19th century, before photography was cheap and ubiquitous, sketches were the primary way people "saw" the news.
Davis was a polarizing figure. No surprise there.
But the sheer variety of ways he was depicted—from the stoic, tragic statesman to the humiliated fugitive in a dress—is staggering. If you've ever tried to sketch him yourself, you know his face is a challenge. It’s all sharp angles. Sunken cheeks. That strange, clouded left eye caused by herpes simplex keratitis. He wasn't an easy man to capture, and he certainly wasn't an easy man to like for many of his contemporaries.
The Evolution of the Drawing of Jefferson Davis
Early portraits of Davis usually focused on his military "heroism." Think back to his time in the Mexican-American War. The sketches from this era show a dashing, upright Mississippian. They are clean. The lines are sharp.
But then the Civil War happens. Everything shifts.
The Confederate "official" artists wanted him to look like a Roman senator. They used heavy shading to emphasize his high cheekbones, trying to project a sense of intellectual depth and Southern "aristocracy." You’ll see these in old copies of Southern Illustrated News. They’re stiff. Stilted. Almost statue-like. Contrast that with the sketches coming out of the North, specifically in publications like Harper's Weekly. There, the drawing of Jefferson Davis becomes increasingly gaunt. He starts looking less like a leader and more like a ghost or a villain from a Dickens novel.
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Caricature as a Political Tool
One of the most famous—or infamous—visuals in American history involves the capture of Davis in May 1865. The story went around that he tried to escape Union soldiers by dressing in his wife’s clothes.
Historians like James M. McPherson have clarified that he actually just threw his wife’s "raglan" (a water-resistant overcoat) over his shoulders in the dark, but the Northern press didn't care about the nuance. They went to town.
The market was suddenly flooded with satirical drawings. We are talking hundreds of different versions. Some showed him in full hoop skirts. Others had him wearing a bonnet while clutching a bag of gold. These weren't just "funny drawings." They were a deliberate attempt to emasculate the leader of the rebellion. By stripping him of his masculine, "statesman" persona through art, the Union-aligned artists were effectively declaring the Confederacy dead and buried.
The Technical Challenges of Sketching Davis
If you’re an artist today looking at a reference photo or a historical drawing of Jefferson Davis, you'll notice his facial structure is incredibly distinct. It’s skeletal.
He suffered from intense facial neuralgia for much of his adult life. It caused him literal agony. You can see the physical toll of that pain in the way artists rendered his jawline. Most sketches from 1863 onwards show a significant hollowing of the temples.
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- Bone Structure: Very prominent zygomatic arches (cheekbones).
- The Eyes: His left eye was frequently depicted as slightly lighter or "opaque" in more realistic sketches due to his well-documented vision issues.
- The Beard: He wore a "Chin Curtain"—no mustache, just hair along the jawline and chin. It’s a hard look to pull off without making the subject look like a caricature.
Artists often struggle with the "weight" of his face. Because he was so thin, a few wrong strokes with a pencil can make him look like a different person entirely. Most modern historical illustrators have to balance the harshness of his features with the fact that he was, by all accounts, a man of intense, albeit rigid, dignity.
Why We Still Study These Sketches
You might wonder why anyone bothers with a 150-year-old drawing of Jefferson Davis when we have actual photographs. It's a fair question.
Photography back then required the subject to sit perfectly still for long periods. It created a "mask." But a sketch? A sketch captures movement. It captures the artist's bias. When you look at the sketches made during his two-year imprisonment at Fort Monroe, you see a broken man. The lines are softer, almost sympathetic in some cases, showing a man whose health was failing in a damp cell.
These drawings fill the gaps that the camera couldn't reach. They show us the fear, the anger, and the propaganda of a nation tearing itself apart.
Identifying Authentic 19th-Century Prints
If you happen to find an old sketch in an attic or a thrift store, check the paper first. 19th-century newsprint was wood-pulp based and usually turns quite brittle and yellow-brown. Look for "cross-hatching." Since they couldn't print gray tones easily, artists used tiny intersecting lines to create shadows.
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If the lines are too smooth or look like "dots" (halftone), it's likely a much later reproduction.
How to Analyze a Historical Portrait
Next time you see a drawing of Jefferson Davis, don't just look at his face. Look at the background. Look at what he’s holding.
- Check the hands: Are they claw-like or elegant?
- Look at the light source: Is he bathed in a "heavenly" glow (Pro-Confederate) or emerging from shadows (Pro-Union)?
- Note the clothing: Is it a pristine uniform or tattered rags?
Art isn't neutral. It never has been. Especially not when the subject is one of the most controversial figures in American history.
Actionable Steps for Historians and Artists
If you are looking to deepen your understanding or create your own rendition of this historical figure, follow these specific steps to ensure accuracy and context:
- Consult the Library of Congress Digital Collections: Search specifically for "Jefferson Davis" in the Prints & Photographs Division. They have high-resolution scans of original wood engravings that show the raw texture of 1860s media.
- Study the "Lost Cause" iconography: To understand the idealized drawings, look at prints produced in the 1870s and 80s by Southern lithographers. These were meant to rehabilitate his image and often omit his physical ailments.
- Compare with the 1859 Brady photographs: Before you draw, look at Mathew Brady’s portraits. Use these as your anatomical "source of truth" to see how much the sketch artists exaggerated or softened his features.
- Focus on the textures: If you are sketching him yourself, use a hard lead (2H) for the sharp angles of his cheekbones and a softer charcoal for the deep-set shadows of his eyes to capture that "haunted" look prevalent in his later years.
The most important thing to remember is that every line tells a story about the person who drew it just as much as the person being drawn. History isn't just what happened; it's how we chose to illustrate it.