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Shown from the chest up, a clean shaven, middle-aged man with pale, rosy skin and curly, pewter-gray hair, looks at or toward us against a caramel-brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he turns his face slightly to look our way with honey-brown eyes under straight, faint eyebrows. He has a long, prominent nose, and his pink lips are closed in a straight line. His gray hair is parted in the middle, curls around his face, and down the back of his neck. He wears a bright white, high-necked, ruffled shirt under a velvety black jacket. Light illuminating the man from our left creates a golden glow on the light brown background behind him.

Gilbert Stuart

Thomas Jefferson, c. 1821

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 60-A

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 66 x 54.5 cm (26 x 21 7/16 in.)

framed: 90.2 x 79.4 x 10.2 cm (35 1/2 x 31 1/4 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge IV in memory of his great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge II, and his father, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III

Accession Number

1986.71.1

Artists / Makers

Gilbert Stuart (painter) American, 1755 - 1828

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 265-266, 268-270, and 273-275, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/apublications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf

Provenance

Colonel George Gibbs [1776-1833], "Sunswick Farm," Astoria, New York;[1] his widow, Laura Wolcott Gibbs [1794-1870], New York;[2] sold through (Jacob Hart Lazarus [1822-1891], New York) in 1872 to Thomas Jefferson Coolidge [1831-1920], Boston;[3] his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III [1893-1959], Boston;[4] his son, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge IV, Boston; sold 1979 to NGA.

[1] On Gibbs see George Gibbs, The Gibbs Family of Rhode Island and Some Related Families, New York, 1933, 18-21, Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols., New York, 1928-1936, reprinted in 10 vols. with 8 supplements, New York, 1944-1988, 4 (part 1):244-245, and Stephen Dow Beckham, "Colonel George Gibbs," In Benjamin Silliman and his Circle: Studies on The Influence of Benjamin Silliman on Science in America, edited by Leonard G. Wilson, New York, 1979, 28-47. Tom Michie's research on these portraits (NGA curatorial files) has been very helpful in writing these entries.

[2] For her dates see Gibbs 1933, 21-25.

[3] Lazarus acted as the Gibbs' agent in the sale. After agreeing upon the price, he wrote Coolidge on 27 June 1872 that he was sending the portraits to Boston the next day with some documents concerning their history. These were his copies of letters written to Mrs. Gibbs in the 1850s certifying that the portraits were painted by Stuart for Colonel Gibbs (copies, NGA curatorial files). On Coolidge see Dictionary of American Biography, 2 (part 2):395, and Emma Downing Coolidge, Descendants of John and Mary Coolidge of Watertown, Massachusetts, Boston, 1930, 351.

[4] Coolidge 1930, 353; his father Thomas Jefferson Coolidge II died in 1912.

Associated Names

Coolidge, III, Thomas Jefferson
Coolidge, IV, Thomas Jefferson
Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson
Gibbs, George, Colonel
Gibbs, Laura Wolcott
Lazarus, Jacob Hart

Exhibition History

1832: American Academy of the Fine Arts, New York, 1832, no. 13

1838: Exhibition of Select Paintings, by Modern Artists, principally American, and living, under the Direction of a Committee of Amateurs, Stuyvesant Institute, New York, 1838, no. 197

1839: Banquet held at City Hall, New York, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Washington's inauguration, 1839

1853: The Washington Exhibition in aid of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts, at the American Art-Union Gallery, New York, 1853, no. 88

1857: First Annual Exhibition of the Washington Art Association, Washington, D.C., 1857, no. 100

1862: Third Annual Exhibition at the Gallery of the Fine Art Institute, Artists' Fund Society, New York, 1862, no. 177

1875: Revolutionary Relics Exhibited at No. 56, Beacon Street, Ladies' Centennial Commission, Boston, 1875, no. 110

1880: Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880, no. 206

1911: Loan Exhibition of Early American Portraits, The Boston Art Club, Massachusetts, 1911, no. 44

1921: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1921, 1926-1931, 1936-1943, 1946-1959 (on loan)

1925: Loan Exhibition of Early American Furniture and the Decorative Crafts for the Benefit of Free Hospital for Women, Brookline, Mass., Park Square Building, Boston, 1925, no. 343

1928: Gilbert Stuart Memorial Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1928, no. 39

1932: George Washington Bicentennial Historical Loan Exhibition of Portraits of George Washington and his Associates, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1932, no. 82

1943: The Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Exhibition: 1743-1943, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943, no. 10

1959: The Lost Portraits of Thomas Jefferson painted by Gilbert Stuart, Mead Art Building, Amherst College, Massachusetts, 1959, unnumbered.

1975: Gilbert Stuart: Painter of Presidents, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, 1975-1976, no cat.

1991: Zeichen der Freiheit: Das Bild der Republik in der Kunst des 16. bis 20. Jahrhunderts [Emblems of Liberty: The Image of the Republic in the Art of the 16th to the 20th Century], Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland, 1991, no. 324c, repro.

Bibliography

1879: Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 111-112, 207.

1880: "Portraits Painted by Stuart...taken from Mason's Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart." In Exhibition of Portraits Painted by Gilbert Stuart. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880: 44, no. 334.

1892: Bowen, Clarence W., ed. The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington. New York, 1892: 98, repro. opp. 150, 484.

1926: Park 1926, 442, no. 445, repro.

1931: Swan, Mabel Munson. "The 'American Kings'." Antiques 19, no. 4 (April 1931): 278-281, repro.

1933: Gibbs, George. The Gibbs Family of Rhode Island and Some Related Families. New York: 148-149.

1940: Swan, Mabel Munson. The Athenaeum Gallery, 1827-1873. Boston, 1940: 69.

1944: Kimball, Fiske. The Life Portraits of Jefferson and their Replicas. Philadelphia, 1944: 517, fig. 15, 520-521.

1966: Sadik 1966, 155-164.

1979: Gustafson, Eleanor H. "Museum Accessions." Antiques 115, no. 5 (May 1979): 976-978, color repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 230, repro.

1980: Brown, J. Carter. "Five Gilbert Stuart Portraits At The National Gallery of Art Link Charlottesville To New England--The Coolidge Connection." The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia (23 September 1980): 10-11.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 8, repro.

1981: Meschutt, David. "Gilbert Stuart's Portraits of Thomas Jefferson." The American Art Journal 13, no. 1 (Winter 1981): 3-16, repro. fig. 10.

1987: Bush, Alfred L. The Life Portraits of Thomas Jefferson. 2nd edition. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1987: 57-59.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 10, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 354, repro.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 265-266, 268-270, 273-275, color repro. 274.