Jefferson paid $105. In commending the sculptor to Madison as "really able in his art," Jefferson said he gave "less trouble than any artist, painter, or sculptor I have ever submitted myself to." This bust is also among the missing, although those of Mrs. Randolph and Ellen are at Edgehill. Pietro Cardelli modeled a bust of Jefferson in 1819, but it is unknown, although a number of plaster copies were subscribed for by disciples of the statesman. It is highly improbable that Jefferson could have been, as he was, on terms of familiar intimacy with Richard and Maria Cosway, each of them skilled miniature painters, and that neither of them should have painted his portrait. Yet such a portrait is not known, any more than the miniature that was painted of him by Thomas Gimbrede, and engraved by the painter for "State Papers and Publick Documents," published in 1815. Another unknown portrait is recorded in Jefferson's financial diary under July 12, 1792: "Paid Williams for drawing my portrait, 14 D."
Jefferson seems to have approved of his own profile. In April, 1789, when in France, he had two profiles made, for one of which he paid six francs, and for the other, thirty francs; and early in 1804, Amos Doolittle, an engraver from Connecticut, appears to have made several of him. His profile was also cut at Peale's Museum about this time. The next year Gilbert Stuart painted his famous profile in monochrome. There are a number of these so-called Stuart profiles, but the identity of the original by Stuart is undetermined. Hon. T. J. Coolidge of Boston, great-grandson of Jefferson, claims to own it; but his is painted in oil color, while Jefferson writes to Joseph Delaplaine, in 1813, that it is "in water color"; and six years later writes to General Dearborn that Stuart did it "on paper with crayon." Dr. Thornton, to whom Jefferson lent it to copy, calls it a "drawing," as does also Jefferson, which would imply that it was either in crayon or water color. Dr. Thornton made his copy in Swiss crayon, which would indicate that to be the medium of the original he was copying. For the original Jefferson paid Stuart $100, June 18, 1805, covering the payment in the following note: "Mr. Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Stewart, and begs leave to send him the inclosed for the trouble he gave him in taking the head a la antique. Mr. Stewart seemed to contemplate having an engraving made either from that or the first portrait; he is free to use the one or the other at his choice; the one not proposed to be used I will be glad to receive at Mr. Stewart's convenience; the other when he shall be done with it." This Stuart profile was so popular that William Birch copied it in enamel, and also employed Edwin to engrave it, that he might give the prints away and a proper likeness of Jefferson be circulated.
Bass Otis, a very indifferent painter, made a portrait of Jefferson in the summer of 1816, for Delaplaine's gallery, which was engraved by Nagle, and the original is now owned by Mr. W. J. Campbell of Philadelphia. Relative to this portrait Dr. Thornton writes to Jefferson, July 20, 1816: "Never was such injustice done to you except by sign painters and General Kosciusko, than which last nothing can be so bad, and when I saw it I did not wonder that he lost Poland—not that it is necessary that a general should be a painter, but he should be a man of such sense as to discover that he is not a painter." The profile of Jefferson by Kosciuszko is nothing less than a grotesque caricature. The original drawing was destroyed, but it is preserved, as an iconographic curiosity, in a fac-simile aquatint in colors, by Ml. Sokolnicki.
Charles Peale Polk, who was a nephew, pupil, and imitator of Charles Willson Peale, painted a portrait of Jefferson from life, about 1800, which, if it is, as I think it is, the picture owned by Mrs. F. A. March of Easton, Pennsylvania, exhibits some marked characteristics of the original, but very crudely rendered. Edward Savage painted and engraved in mezzotinto a portrait of Jefferson, and introduced an admirable whole-length figure of Jefferson, in profile, when completing Pine's picture of "The Congress voting Independence," which highly interesting and important painting is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Jefferson's figure was commanding, six feet two and a half inches in height, well formed, neither stout nor thin, indicating strength, activity, and robust health. His carriage was erect, and his step firm and elastic, which he preserved till his death. His hair was of a reddish cast, his complexion sandy, and his eyes, blue when young, changed to a hazel gray as he advanced in years. When he died, at the age of eighty-four, he had not lost a tooth, nor had he a defective one.
There is no known portrait of Martha Wayles, who became the wife of Thomas Jefferson on New Year's Day, 1772, and died September 6, 1782, at the age of thirty-four.
