Portrait of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Dublin Core
Title
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Creator
Thomas Sully
Date
Begun in 1821, Finished in 1830
Description
To complete this portrait of Thomas Jefferson commissioned by the United States Military Academy, Thomas Sully stayed for twelve days at Monticello, making sketches and painting the half-length study seen here. Jefferson was concerned that the artist’s ”fine pencil would be illy [sic] bestowed” on a man of seventy-eight years. Sully’s vividly colored and loose-flowing brushstrokes, however, give his sitter a sense of freshness and vitality. After delivering the completed large-scale work to the Academy, Sully kept this study and produced several copies. He touched up the original study in 1830 before Jefferson’s protégé William Short obtained the canvas and donated it to the APS.
Rights
American Philosophical Society. Gift of William Short, 1830.
Collection
Citation
Thomas Sully, “Portrait of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),” APS Museum Online Collections, accessed April 17, 2024, https://exhibits.amphilsoc.org/sarah-manning-vaughan/items/show/24.