Wayland, Francis (1796-1865)
Role: Fourth President of Brown University, 1827-1855Dates: 1827-1855
Portrait Location: Library Annex
Artist: Unknown Artist (unknown)
Portrait Date: 1846
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 21 1/8
Framed Dimensions: 26 3/8
Brown Portrait Number: 206
Brown Historical Property Number: 185
This modest painting pictures one of the most notable presidents in the history of Brown University. Unlike the monumental Wayland portrait by George P. A. Healy now presiding over Sayles Hall, this awkwardly-painted portrait seems to be a work of homage from a less talented hand.
A native of New York, Francis Wayland was born to English immigrants in 1796. His father became a Baptist minister when he was eleven years old, but following his graduation from Union College at age seventeen, Francis Wayland initially chose to study medicine. When he did turn to seminary studies at Andover in1816, lack of funds forced him to return to Union College as a tutor. Wayland was finally ordained in the ministry in 1821 and went on to become a highly regarded preacher. In recognition of his outstanding sermons, Brown awarded him an honorary D.D. degree in 1822, elected him to the Corporation in 1825, and positioned him to succeed President Asa Messer, which he did in 1827. Wayland brought new rigor to educational and residential procedures at Brown. He authored a number of textbooks on philosophical topics and pushed for changes in Brown's curriculum as well as in the entire system of American higher education. He advocated independent analysis from students and open discussion, both innovative at that time. Lack of support for his progressive views brought Wayland to the leaving in 1849, but he stayed on at Brown six more years. Wayland was strict with students, humane toward slaves?openly defying the Fugitive Slave Law?and supported extending suffrage to non-landowners. Several years after retirement, Wayland wrote to a friend, "I almost ruined myself in laboring for this college, and I believe I saw its true position. As soon as I left it, all retrogressed, and my work of 29 years is nil." Nonetheless, this liberal thinker and educational reformer is remembered as one of Brown's greatest presidents. Wayland remained in Providence as a Baptist minister until his death in 1865.
Though unsigned and undated, a date of 1846 is traditionally associated with this painting. In 1998 laboratory conservation indicated that the original painted image had been overpainted at least twice. Because the specific details of the original artist's portrait remain obscured by these later and insoluble layers of overpainting, not even an attribution to an artist based on style is possible.