Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

Thomas Jefferson
(1743–1826)
Father of the Declaration of Indepen-
The bust of Thomas Jefferson was one of the first executed
dence, the multi-talented Thomas Jefferson
for the Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Collection. The com­
achieved perhaps his greatest renown as
mission, authorized under a Senate resolution of May 13,
a political theorist and spokesman for
democracy. He was born in what is now
1886, was awarded to sculptor Moses Ezekiel. Ezekiel was
Albemarle County, Virginia, studied law,
in Rome when he received the first of several letters from
and was admitted to the Virginia bar in
1767. He served in the Virginia house of
Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark, requesting a proposal for a bust
burgesses from 1769 until it disbanded in
of Jefferson. Clark first wrote to Ezekiel on May 24, 1886, and the sculptor
1774. Virginia sent Jefferson to the
responded with an offer on June 6, on the assumption that he was being
second Continental Congress, where he
was elected to the committee charged with
commissioned for more than one work. Clark corrected him in a letter
drafting a declaration of independence.
of June 23, which also included the approximate dimensions desired
Although he was assisted by John Adams,
for the Jefferson bust. Ezekiel accepted the commission on July 21, stated
Benjamin Franklin, and others, Jefferson
his usual fee, but candidly concluded, “I will leave the matter of price
was the document’s primary author.
Jefferson served in the Virginia state
with you and be satisfied . . . as I would like to have the commission,
legislature from 1776 to 1779, and he
having at present no work on hand and needing it.” The commission
was governor between 1779 and 1781.
was confirmed on August 2, and just over two years later, on September
After the Revolutionary War, he carried
out various assignments abroad, including
12, 1888, Ezekiel announced that he had completed the bust, which “will
serving as minister to France. When he
I hope give you perfect satisfaction.” The bust was shipped from Italy
returned home in 1789, he accepted the
in January 1889, then transferred by railroad from New York by March
post of secretary of state in George
Washington’s first administration. Fol-
23, and received at the Capitol soon afterward.
lowing a brief retirement from public
Like other sculptors then engaged in carving portraits of deceased
service, Jefferson, representing the
Republicans, ran for the presidency in
vice presidents for the Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Collection, Ezekiel
1796. According to the election rules of
needed a model, an earlier portrait on which to base his likeness. If,
the day, he finished second to Federalist
as has been suggested, he derived the features from those of the full-
John Adams and, as a result, was desig­
nated the nation’s second vice president.
length statue of Jefferson by Pierre Jean David d’Angers, presented to
This outcome, in which the president and
the United States in 1834 by Uriah P. Levy, it is not known when he
vice president represented opposing par-
could have seen it. Ezekiel was living in Rome and did not return during
ties, would prove unique in U.S. history.
As vice president, Jefferson devised
the period of this commission.
the Manual of Parliamentary Practice
Despite the uncertainty about Ezekiel’s model, the work does
guidebook for the Senate’s presiding
resemble the David d’Angers statue, but with an odd, compressed appear-
officer that is still relevant today. Mean-
while, he prepared for a second run for
ance. Here, Jefferson looks a bit like a handsome, genial young clergyman.
the presidency in 1800. This time, he tied
The long neck is factually accurate, the wavy hair more carefully coiffed
in electoral votes with his opponent, Aaron
than in some other portraits. The recessive, pushed-back shoulders prob-
Burr. After 36 ballots, the House of Repre­
sentatives chose Jefferson as the country’s
ably were meant to suggest that the great statesman was clasping his hands
third president.
behind his back. (It is also possible that the block of marble at Ezekiel’s
The most significant accomplishment of
disposal was too small to accommodate broader shoulders or upper arms.)
Thomas Jefferson’s first administration was
the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which
The steeply vertical coat lapels emphasize the long, slender torso of the
doubled the size of the United States.
tall, lanky Jefferson.
208
United States Senate

---

Thomas Jefferson
Moses Jacob Ezekiel (1844–1917)
Marble, 1888
29 1?2 x 20 x 16 1?8 inches (74.9 x 50.8 x 41 cm)
Unsigned
Commissioned by the Joint Committee on the Library, 1886
Accepted by the Joint Committee on the Library, 1889
Cat. no. 22.00002
Catalogue of Fine Art
209

---

Thomas Jefferson —continued
Reelected triumphantly the following year,
The bust is very competently carved, demonstrating why the now-
Jefferson spent much of his second term
neglected Ezekiel was honored and respected in his day. There is
attempting to protect American rights
against British and French interests by in-
fluency to both the modeling and the carving. The sense of the body
stituting a trade embargo, an effort that
beneath the coat and vest; the crisp clarity of buttons and creases, of
proved largely unsuccessful.
lacy shirtfront and cravat; and the organic rhythms of the hair achieved
In 1809 he retired to his rural Virginia
only with the chisel, not the drill, all attest to a decisive skill.
home, Monticello. There, he championed
higher education by founding the University
Sir Moses Ezekiel was one of America’s most prolific late 19th-
of Virginia, and pursued wide-ranging inter-
century sculptors. He was born in Virginia, served in the Civil War,
ests in the arts and sciences. Jefferson is
considered one of the most versatile men of
then studied in Cincinnati and later in Berlin, where he became the
his age, one much respected for his signifi-
first American to receive the prestigious Prix de Rome, for his bas-relief
cant contributions to political statesmanship
Israel. Knighted by the Italian government, the artist established a life-
and philosophy. He is also recognized for
long studio in Rome (in a section of the ancient Baths of Diocletian),
his scholarship and skill in architecture,
music, botany, and agriculture. Jefferson’s
yet retained his American citizenship and a studio in Cincinnati. In 1879
personal library was the foundation for the
William W. Corcoran commissioned Ezekiel to design statues of great
Library of Congress.
artists and sculptors to fill 11 niches in the facade of the original
Corcoran Gallery of Art (now the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick
Gallery) in Washington, D.C. Today many of these sculptures are dis­
played at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Virginia. Other full-length
Ezekiel statues of Jefferson are found at the University of Virginia and
at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. Ezekiel’s
Confederate Memorial is located at Arlington National Cemetery; his
bronze statue of Edgar Allan Poe—often considered his finest portrait
statue—can be seen at the University of Baltimore’s Law School; and
his Religious Liberty, commissioned by the Independent Order of B’nai
B’rith for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, now stands on the grounds
of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
The artist received honorary titles from three European countries.
210
United States Senate

---

Artist Moses Ezekiel relaxes while
visiting his brother in Ohio, ca. 1912.
(Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)
Catalogue of Fine Art
211

---

Thomas Jefferson —continued
American artist Thomas Sully traveled to Monticello in March
1821 to capture a likeness of Thomas Jefferson. Sully was
on commission to paint a portrait of Jefferson for the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, which Jefferson estab­
lished while president. Jefferson lightly observed that Sully
might find “the trouble of his journey and the employment of his fine
pencil, as illy bestowed” on his elderly person. But Sully, after two weeks
of sketching and painting the great man at Monticello, “left the place
with the greatest reluctance.”1
The immediate result of that visit was a half-length oil painting
(the torso not completed until 1830) of the former president that is one
of Sully’s finest achievements. Sully subsequently sold the painting to
William Short, Jefferson’s former secretary. Short, in turn, bequeathed
the picture to the American Philosophical Society, a scientific organi­
zation that Jefferson had presided over from 1797 to 1814. This painting,
in Philosophical Hall, Philadelphia, served as the study for the West Point
commission—a full-length portrait, still owned by the Academy, which
Sully finished the following year.
Sully painted two replicas of the half-length painting in 1856. Both
are listed in a hand-written register of portraits created by Sully. No. 884
in the register was painted for the actor Edwin Forrest between December
6 and 11, and No. 885 was painted “for myself” (“second copy”) between
December 11 and 29. No. 885, which remained in Sully’s possession during
his lifetime, must be the one offered for sale to Congress in 1872 by the
artist’s grandson, Garrett C. Neagle, for $300. The Joint Committee on
the Library took no action, and after Sully’s death later that year Neagle
raised his asking price to $500. The committee haggled, and the painting
was acquired for $200 in 1874.
In 1856 Sully was in his seventies, which probably accounts for
a noticeable hardness in the handling and harshness in the coloring of
the Senate’s painting, characteristics not found in the original. Despite
the loss of the artist’s youthful finesse, the replica retains the extraor­
dinary dignity and repose of the original. The magisterial head, with
prominent brow and large, deep-set eyes, is serenely poised above the
torso. Jefferson is wearing a white shirt, a black coat, a glimpse of a
bright crimson waistcoat, and a greatcoat trimmed with sable furs given
to him by Tadeusz Ko´sciuszko (p. 240), who had received it from Czar
Paul I on his release from prison in St. Petersburg. The waistcoat provides
212
United States Senate

---

Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Sully (1783–1872)
Oil on canvas, 1856
28 1?2 x 23 5?8 inches (72.4 x 60 cm)
Unsigned
Purchased by the Joint Committee on the Library, 1874
Cat. no. 31.00006
Catalogue of Fine Art
213

---

Thomas Jefferson —continued
an effective note of color, repeated in the shadows above the eyelids.
Behind the head, Sully has painted a vague sky effect with his favorite
robin’s egg blue, mingled with tawny hues.
In several of Sully’s Jefferson portraits (though not the Senate ver­
sion), the subject stands majestically beside a marble column from the
U.S. House of Representatives. The symbolism is significant: Jefferson
was closely involved in the construction of the new Capitol building,
and he insisted that architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe use the Corinthian
order for the new House Chamber. The president was keenly aware of
the importance of evoking the Roman aesthetic and its association with
a republican form of government.
Thomas Sully was the leading American portrait painter in the
romantic style during the first half of the 19th century. He was born in
England, moved to the United States with his family at the age of nine,
and lived in both South Carolina and Virginia during his youth. Sully
studied briefly with Gilbert Stuart in Boston and in 1808 took up per­
manent residence in Philadelphia. He later traveled to London, where
he was influenced by the work of Benjamin West and Sir Thomas
Lawrence. On his return to Philadelphia, Sully began a long and suc­
cessful career painting the fashionable men and women of the day; he
produced more than 2,000 portraits during his 70-year career.
One important replica by Sully of his half-length portrait of Jefferson—
this one a bust-length likeness—was formerly owned by President James
Monroe and is now on permanent loan to the University of Virginia from
the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. The location of another
Jefferson portrait, once owned by the Marquis de Lafayette, is unknown.
Sully’s likenesses of Jefferson became standard, and many later artists and
engravers replicated them.
A painting of Andrew Jackson attributed to Thomas Sully is also in
the Senate (p. 196). In addition to his portraits, Sully created landscapes,
history paintings, and fanciful compositions. He was a respected teacher,
and his treatise on painting methods, Hints to Young Painters, was
published posthumously.
214
United States Senate

---

This full-length portrait of President
Thomas Jefferson was executed by
Thomas Sully in 1822.
(West Point Museum Collection, United States Military Academy)
Catalogue of Fine Art
215

---