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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Gallery Text

Jefferson sat for Gilbert Stuart twice: in May 1800 and in the spring of 1805. Three important portraits, including this bust profile of Jefferson’s head “à l’antique,” were produced. Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge called this “medallion” portrait “incomparable . . . the only likeness ever taken of him that gives a good idea of the original.”

Jefferson served two terms as U.S. president, founded the University of Virginia, and drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. He also served as vice president, secretary of state, governor, and plenipotentiary to the court of Louis XVI. Though he was referred to as “The Apostle of Democracy,” Jefferson enslaved more than 300 artisans and laborers across his lifetime, calling them “those who labor for my happiness.” The toil of so many people gave Jefferson the resources and time to accomplish extraordinary things.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.156
People
Gilbert Stuart, American (North Kingstown, RI 1755 - 1828 Boston, MA)
Title
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) (The Medallion Portrait)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1805
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228021

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil and egg mixture on blue laid paper on canvas
Technique
Grisaille
Dimensions
47.6 x 47.6 cm (18 3/4 x 18 3/4 in.)
framed: 68 x 68.6 x 10.2 cm (26 3/4 x 27 x 4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From the artist to the sitter, Thomas Jefferson, 1805; to daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph; to her daughter Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge; to her son Thomas Jefferson Coolidge; to his daughter Sarah Lawrence Coolidge Newbold; to his son Thomas Jefferson Newbold, Harvard class of 1910, 1917; to his wife, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Newbold; her gift to the Fogg Art Museum, 1960.


Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. T. Jefferson Newbold and family, in memory of Thomas Jefferson Newbold, Class of 1910
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.156
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Travels through North America, during the years 1825 and 1826, Carey, Lea and Carey (Philadelphia, PA, 1828), see under 11/26/1825
  • Clarence Winthrop Bowen, ed., History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington, D. Appleton & Co. (New York, NY, 1892), p. 485
  • George C. Mason, The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY, 1894), pp. 207-208
  • Charles Henry Hart, "Life Portraits of Thomas Jefferson", McClure's Magazine (May 1898), p. 48
  • Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart: An lllustrated Descriptive List of His Works, vol. I - IV, W. E. Rudge (New York, NY, 1926), vol. I, p. 440, no. 442; vol. III, ill. p. 266
  • Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Works Progress Administration, American Portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts, Volumes 1 and 2, Historical Records Survey (Boston, MA, 1939), p. 222, cat. 1173
  • Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Exhibition, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1943), no. 8
  • Fiske Kimball, "Life Portraits of Thomas Jefferson and Their Replicas", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1944), p. 521
  • "Notes on the Medallion Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Gilbert Stuart", Unpublished (1957)
  • "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, July-September 1960", The Art Quarterly (Winter 1960), vol. XXIII, no. 4, ill. p. 398
  • Dorothy Adlow, "'Jefferson' Given to Harvard", The Christian Science Monitor (July 1, 1960), ill. p. 1
  • Jules David Prown, "Medallion Life Portrait of Jefferson, Painted by Gilbert Stuart 1805", Harvard Alumni Bulletin (Cambridge, MA, September 24, 1960), ill. p. 15
  • Alfred L. Bush, The Life Portraits of Thomas Jefferson, exh. cat., Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (Charlottesville, VA, 1962), pp. 6, 75-77, no. 20, ill. p. 74
  • Stephen Xydis, "Classical Greek Tradition in Colonial America", Greek Heritage (After July 1964)
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 24, ill.
  • Fiske Kimball, "The Stuart Portraits of Jefferson", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (June 1973), p. 343, 348
  • Karl Lehmann, Thomas Jefferson: American Humanist, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL and London, England, 1973), frontispiece
  • Louise Todd Ambler, Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), pp. 100, 142, no. 86, ill. p. 100
  • Agnes Mongan, Harvard Honors Lafayette, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), no. 35, ill.
  • Clifford L. Egan, Neither Peace Nor War : Franco-American relations, 1803-1812, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA, 1983), ill. opp. p. 78
  • Richard McLanathan, Gilbert Stuart, Harry N. Abrams, Inc./National Museum of American Art (New York, NY and Washington DC, 1986), ill. p. 122
  • Mary Crawford Volk, John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1992), p. 70, fig. 40
  • David L. Ganz, "The New Jefferson", COINage, Miller Magazines, Inc. (June 1994), vol. 30, no. 6, p. 96
  • Carrie Rebora Barratt and Ellen G. Miles, Gilbert Stuart, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / Yale University Press (New York, 2004), p. 284, fig. 79
  • Susan Rather, "Contrary Stuart", American Art (Spring 2010), vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 66-93, p. 85, fig. 15
  • Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson's Granddaughter in Queen Victoria's England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839, ed. Ann Lucas Birle and Lisa A. Francavilla, Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, MA, 2011), pp. x, xvii, 18, fig. 14
  • Ann Lucas Birle and Lisa A. Francavilla, ed., Thomas Jefferson's Granddaughter in Queen Victoria's England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839, Massachusetts Historical Society and Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. (Boston and Charlottesville, 2011), repr. as fig. 14
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), p. 33, 450-51, cat. 416, ill.
  • Murray Whyte, "A History of Slavery, Vivdly Alive in the Present at Harvard", The Boston Globe (March 17, 2019), pp. N1, N6, p. N6
  • Lloyd DeWitt and Corey Piper, Thomas Jefferson Architect: Palladian Models, Democratic Principles, and the Conflict of Ideals, exh. cat., Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, VA, 2019), p. 120, plate 1
  • James P. McClure, ed., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 46 ; 4 March to 30 June 1802, Princeton University Press (Princeton and Oxford, 2022), repr., np.

Exhibition History

  • Unidentified Exhibition, Boston Athenaeum, 1828, Boston Athenaeum, Boston, 01/01/1828 - 12/31/1828
  • Loan Exhibition of Stuart's Works, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 05/01/1880 - 05/31/1880
  • Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 04/13/1943 - 05/15/1943
  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/17/1975 - 09/22/1975
  • Harvard Honors Lafayette, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/03/1975 - 03/12/1976
  • Gilbert Stuart, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/18/2004 - 01/16/2005; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 03/27/2005 - 07/31/2005
  • Thomas Jefferson 264th Birthday Commemoration, Monticello, 04/13/2007 - 07/24/2013
  • 32Q: 2240 18th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 09/05/2019; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/11/2023 - 08/06/2024
  • Thomas Jefferson Architect: Palladian Models, Democratic Principles, and the Conflict of Ideals, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 10/19/2019 - 01/19/2020

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu