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How attractive was Aaron Burr?
Feb. 17th, 2025 02:39 pmI love the anonymous asks I get on Tumblr :)
One answer, of course, is 'judge for yourself'. In the youngest portrait of him we have, by Gilbert Stuart in about 1793, Burr is about 37. Good bone structure, straight nose, rather feminine lips and chin although the effect is counterbalanced by the obvious five o'clock shadow. Also somewhat balding and looks like he hasn't slept in a week, but then his wife was slowly dying a week's travel away at the time. His most notable feature is, of course, those large dark eyes, and they're striking in all of his face-on portraits; they seem to have been just as striking in real life. I will skip the terrifying "glow with the ardor of venereal fire" description, you get the idea.
There are no full length portraits of Burr, but we know that he was rather short (at 5'6 he was eight inches shorter than Jefferson, and even Hamilton got to call him Little Burr) and he's usually described as 'delicate' or 'meagre'. (Admittedly Adams does once describe him as 'fat as a Duck' but that may have meant a number of things; if it was a physical description, then it seems to have been a temporary state).
So if you like a sort of elfin anime look, Burr would have been very much the sort of thing you like.
But attractiveness goes beyond the physical. Burr was repeatedly described as witty, courteous, charming and elegant. His political enemies made massive hay out of his 'seductive' qualities. Heck, his letters and journal can disarm and charm at a 200-year distance. He also enjoyed the company of women and valued their minds, so there's that.
Finally, there's the evidence that a lot of men and women did find him very attractive. The men were probably drawn to his daring, apparent frankness, and paternal/mentoring instincts rather than actually wanting to jump his bones, but the same was *not* true of the women. Although Burr frequently paid for sex, he also had plenty of liaisons where the attraction was clearly mutual; including one instance where a woman who he'd previously paid seduced him and then refused to take his money.
There were, of course, dissenting views. In a letter to his daughter, Burr himself says:
A lady of rank and consequence, who had a great curiosity to see the vice-president, after several plans and great trouble at length was gratified, and she declared that he was the very ugliest man she had ever seen in her life. His bald head, pale hatchet visage, and harsh countenance, certainly verify the lady's conclusion. Your very ugly and affectionate father,
A. Burr
As with much that Burr writes, there is more than one way to interpret his words; but it's very easy to read this as the amusement of a man who is beyond being shaken by a single criticism.
It's OK to find Burr attractive. Most people did.
One answer, of course, is 'judge for yourself'. In the youngest portrait of him we have, by Gilbert Stuart in about 1793, Burr is about 37. Good bone structure, straight nose, rather feminine lips and chin although the effect is counterbalanced by the obvious five o'clock shadow. Also somewhat balding and looks like he hasn't slept in a week, but then his wife was slowly dying a week's travel away at the time. His most notable feature is, of course, those large dark eyes, and they're striking in all of his face-on portraits; they seem to have been just as striking in real life. I will skip the terrifying "glow with the ardor of venereal fire" description, you get the idea.
There are no full length portraits of Burr, but we know that he was rather short (at 5'6 he was eight inches shorter than Jefferson, and even Hamilton got to call him Little Burr) and he's usually described as 'delicate' or 'meagre'. (Admittedly Adams does once describe him as 'fat as a Duck' but that may have meant a number of things; if it was a physical description, then it seems to have been a temporary state).
So if you like a sort of elfin anime look, Burr would have been very much the sort of thing you like.
But attractiveness goes beyond the physical. Burr was repeatedly described as witty, courteous, charming and elegant. His political enemies made massive hay out of his 'seductive' qualities. Heck, his letters and journal can disarm and charm at a 200-year distance. He also enjoyed the company of women and valued their minds, so there's that.
Finally, there's the evidence that a lot of men and women did find him very attractive. The men were probably drawn to his daring, apparent frankness, and paternal/mentoring instincts rather than actually wanting to jump his bones, but the same was *not* true of the women. Although Burr frequently paid for sex, he also had plenty of liaisons where the attraction was clearly mutual; including one instance where a woman who he'd previously paid seduced him and then refused to take his money.
There were, of course, dissenting views. In a letter to his daughter, Burr himself says:
A lady of rank and consequence, who had a great curiosity to see the vice-president, after several plans and great trouble at length was gratified, and she declared that he was the very ugliest man she had ever seen in her life. His bald head, pale hatchet visage, and harsh countenance, certainly verify the lady's conclusion. Your very ugly and affectionate father,
A. Burr
As with much that Burr writes, there is more than one way to interpret his words; but it's very easy to read this as the amusement of a man who is beyond being shaken by a single criticism.
It's OK to find Burr attractive. Most people did.
