Mainstream, run-of-the-mill, or even rush-hour, we people time and again get honestly to reflect on what we see. Preparing a book series, I arrived at reviewing images of Thomas Paine. Spontaneously, simply as pictures, regardless of the who, how could I describe one?

Skin complexion: yellow clay facials? Right eye: fry an egg, tilt the pan? Hairdo: Polish plait? ■The plaits were a Medieval and disgusting habit, and I hate fried foods generally, so it could be only cosmetic yellow clay to try for anything good on the face, well, not necessarily in public, should I be to recommend.

Let us begin with Auguste Millière, the painter. The British ■National Portrait Gallery associates him with one portraiture only, that of Thomas Paine. ■Wikimedia do not have more either. This is not much to do, for a career: one portrait only. Maybe Millière’s brush was nursed by another experience. ■Eyes and yolks figure a lot over the Internet today as well.

There is yet an interesting coincidence. In 1706 a book was printed for “T. Horne, at the South Entrance into the Royal Exchange”. The title says, ■The Morals of Confucius, a Chinese Philosopher. As a source, the book looks very unreliable. It advises a prince not to desire anything that another man might wish. It also says,
Heaven speaks, but what language does it use, to preach to men? That there is a sovereign principle from whence all things depend; a sovereign principle which makes them to act and move, its motion is its language, it reduces the seasons to their time; it agitates Nature, it makes it produce: this silence is eloquent (PDF page 158).

To compare Thomas Paine in his Age of Reason, “The Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read” — the yellow tint might be a symbolic joke for the Chinese Yellow River. The Age of Reason did not make Thomas Paine popular.

Another interesting coincidence would come with Isaiah, quoted in Thomas Paine for his critique of the Bible, where he says poets are mixed for prophets. Says he,
The instance, I shall produce is from Isaiah:
“Hear, ye heavens, and give ear, O earth
‘Tis God himself that calls attention forth”
(Conway edition ■Chapter VII).

Isaiah says, according to the International Standard Version 59:5, “They hatch adders’ eggs and weave a spider’s web; whoever eats their eggs dies, and any crushed egg hatches out futility.”
(source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Isaiah/59/5).

The frying pan effect might have come for Paine’s talk on the Universe:
Those who supposed that the Sun went round the Earth every twenty-four hours, made the same mistake in idea, that a cook would do in fact, that should make the fire go round the meat, instead of the meat turning round itself towards the fire (Conway edition ■Chapter XIV).

Millière never saw Thomas Paine. He reportedly patterned after Romney and Sharp; the former was inclined towards imagination, as his ■Infant Shakespeare proves, and the latter had a ■strong bend for prophets, contrary to Paine.

Of ■all engravings by Sharp, none would hold an eye as in a pocket, or grow hair from the forehead ■temple area of the cranium. It is only is his engraving of Thomas Paine. “My own mind is my own church”, wrote Paine (Conway edition ■Chapter 1). Sharp maybe never looked up the Greek; though he should have reckoned, human heads are not buildings.

I’ve always wanted to be a good linguist, so I looked up the Greek. My own mind is my vital capacity to care for my faith | Mój własny umysł to ma żywotna zdatność by pielęgnować swą wiarę. The English word ■church comes from the Greek ■kuria. Thomas Paine didn’t need anyone telling him what to believe.

Thomas Paine’s impression with Aristotle, that he was a judicious man, would have had to come with some good smattering of Greek: translations let picture the philosopher as an unfulfilled Aesop at times. Hardie and Gaye would forward, a child begins by calling all men “father”, and all women “mother”; distinguishes each of them later…

Back to oil and canvas, ■Romney evidently ideated complexion: his smooth skin for field conditions could advertise cosmetics — as by ■general Archibald Campbell. Romney yet excepted Thomas Paine from good complexion.

Dabos (painting 2) is dated for 1792, as a picture “for the purpose of engraving”, yet it “grants” Paine quite a few skin and other defects — of little use in engraving simply as work — while trusting the French prison service with brow epilation. We may compare the non-complimentary ■Franklin in ■Britannica.

It is possible that egg white was used to make portraits, and the pulp was put on the very face or someone in your opinion similar, as evident in ■the Franklin to hold Alexander’s will — then you drew and painted from a thin layer. The Britannica Franklin shows lines like there was ■a layer put on.

Painting 3: Jarvis was of course aware he exaggerated on the nose and ■rouge, but left the brows alone: maybe he was into comment on Paine’s single status, where Dabos would have been suggestive of a non-marital flaw except ■Bonaparte and ■Belloy, “granting” his marks to ■Mirabeau and ■Porta alike.

No other portrait by Jarvis would have the person looking up to the painter. It is natural to doubt if Thomas Paine cared to do that — keep his eyes raised for a time it usually takes to make a portrait. Altogether, the portraits are not trustworthy.

What might Thomas Paine have looked like?

There must have been a time when Thomas Paine was young

Satire happens to capture some characteristics, so I took the images into account. I also had the ■death mask to compare. With Millière mostly, I produced the image below. Layer-on-layer, the shape of the face shows preserved: ■Millière and the ■merged layers, at the links.

Thomas Paine was aide-de-camp to general Nathanael Greene. In Paris, he served Congressional foreign affairs. I imagined him… maybe not a ■pompadour dandy who would epilate his brows, but a neat man. The picture can be purchased ■here.

The picture is not an easy result. I combined paintings and the death mask, and painted on my own; to paint a facial, I saved another copy, and it’s been quite a few hundreds of those. I hope people allow my result for a possibility at least. I’m not a professional painter, only purportedly a talent, someone told me too many years ago.

On the other hand, I don’t have paintings by those professional painters as above for possibly reliable: the sweaty and scruffy man in Paris ? (Millière did not imagine a sponge and comb?) — the venereal face in Paris? (Dabos) — the humble “cheek en rouge”? (Jarvis). Paris may not be the capital of the world, as there is no such single town, but it’s been known for promoting neat people. Hence my Thomas Paine. Here’s another, grayscale. I’m still working on it.

I’m not going to specialize in canvas ever; I think the future of painting is in digital. There is 3D print for paintings available already, and you could use mapping simple as line drawing in geographical maps for altitude, to instruct a computer to make a 3D print of anything you paint digitally. I like the digital for the detail. Traditional canvas don’t have that. Can’t.