In July 1892, Curtis sent a photograph of the Lotto painting to Leech, who consulted with Barber and replied that the engraver could not work from a painting in which the subject faces forward. So that Barber could depict Columbus in profile, Curtis arranged for a little-known Washington, D.C. sculptor, Ulric Stonewall Jackson Dunbar, to create a bust based on the painting at the Company's expense; when complete it was forwarded to Barber in Philadelphia. Barber prepared sketches based on the bust on August 15, and presented them to Acting Mint Director Robert E. Preston (Leech was on vacation), who forwarded them to fair authorities in Chicago. Ellsworth showed them to artists working on the exposition, and to the press. The artistic reaction was negative, and the newspapers suggested that the sketches resembled more a long-haired professor than the celebrated mariner. This controversy, coupled with his anger from public debate over whether the painting actually was of Columbus, caused Ellsworth to refuse permission for his painting to be used.