MORSE, Samuel F.B., painter, inventor of the telegraph. Autograph letter signed ("Sam. F.B. Morse.") to Henry Pratt, 'Pokeepsie,' [Poughkeepsie, N.Y.], 11 June 1858. 2¼ pages, 4to, with envelope in Morse's hand. Morse to a former pupil on his portrait of Lafayette., which "has a melancholy interest to me for it was just as I had commenced the second sitting...that I received the stunning intelligence of Mrs. Morse's death...A picture painted under such circumstances can scarcely be expected to do the artist justice, and as a work of art I cannot praise it." He goes on to describe the picture in detail: "...A full length standing figure...coming against a glowing sunset sky, indicative of the glory of his [Lafayette] own evening of life...Upon his right...three pedestals one of which is vacant...while the two others are surmounted by the busts of Washington & Franklin, the two associated eminent Historical characters of his own time...In a vase...a flower the heliotrope with its face towards the sun in allusion to the characteristic, stern uncompromising consistency of Lafayette, a trait of character which I then considered and still consider the great prominent trait of that distinguished man." He would "certainly deem it a compliment...[if] this portrait...should be chosen as the one to be copied...[and] I should be doubly gratified to know that you my early pupil were commissioned to paint it."