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Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)
Thomas Jefferson (the Edgehill portrait), 1805/21
Oil on wood; 26 1/4 x 21 3/4 in. (66.7 x 55.2 cm)
Jointly owned by Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Incorporated, Charlottesville, and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington (NPG.82.97); purchase funds provided by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, the Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Incorporated, and the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation
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For years, Jefferson attempted to obtain his portrait from Stuart. He sat for Stuart twice: first in 1800 and again in 1805. In 1820, Jefferson appealed to Henry Dearborn (cat. no. 84 in exhibition) to help him with Stuart: "I shall be perfectly content to receive the original . . . which was of the common size (what the painters call, I believe, a bust) it will suit me better than a half-length, as it will range better in line of my other portraits." Stuart obliged by painting this replica of his 1805 life portrait. The compelling image of the third president was altogether persuasive as the life portrait, even to Jefferson himself; only Jefferson's daughter noticed that upon delivery in 1821 the paint was still fresh.
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