"The Death of the Patriarch," takes place
in the upstairs bedroom of the Carthage Jail
in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844.
Here, the Prophet Joseph Smith, his brother
Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards
were attacked by an angry mob of over 100
men.
In their own words, Willard Richards and John
Taylor, the only survivors, described the
scene.
This is John Taylor's account: "almost instantly
another ball passed through the panel of the
door, and struck Brother Hyrum on the left
side of the nose, entering his face and head.
Immediately, when the balls struck him, he
fell flat on his back, crying as he fell,
"I am a dead man."
He never moved afterwards.
I shall never forget the deep feeling of sympathy
and regard manifested in the countenance of
Brother Joseph as he drew nigh to Hyrum, and,
leaning over him, exclaimed, "Oh!
my poor, dear brother Hyrum!"
The death mask of Hyrum Smith shows his expression
at the moment of his death and shows a man
at peace—who lived great and died great
in the sight of God.
I wanted to capture that moment of peace with
the Patriarch as he finished his mortal life
and slipped on to where "traitors and tyrants
would fight him in vain."
I felt that the sadness expressed by the Prophet
Joseph, in seeing his faithful brother fall,
would be a mixture of grief, brotherly love,
and respect, which is a difficult emotion
to capture.
This, of course, was all happening in a matter
of seconds, so the Prophet would have had
to have been quick in his grief, for there
was still death coming from the door and window.
John Taylor talks about it being, the room
being filled with smoke.
If you've ever seen Civil War reenactments
or other films where they're using this old
style black powder gun, it pushes the smoke
out, it's a smoke machine.
So this room would have been, just really
full of smoke.
But for artistic reasons, and so you can see
their faces and see these details, I lessened
the smoke.
We know that Joseph knew he would die.
I'm guessing that he probably thought he would
die first.
So for Hyrum to die first—I think struck
Joseph.
Facing your own death is one thing.
Facing the death of your brother at the hand
of a mob, I'm not sure he thought Hyrum would
be the first to be killed.
You talk about your whole—people say that
their whole life flashes before their eyes
when their, their own death is about to happen,
you know?
If Joseph's life is flashing before his eyes,
in that moment, he's seeing Hyrum through
that whole life.
From the time they were little kids, before
his First Vision or anything and through all
those really difficult times he sees Hyrum—steady
and consistent all for him.
And he's seeing the end of his brother's life.
