JOHN TRUMBULL. Thomas Jefferson 1788. Paris, France. Miniature.
John Trumbull and Thomas Jefferson had a long association beginning with Jefferson’s time in France. Trumbull and Jefferson met in London and continued their association in Paris in the late 1780s. Jefferson invited Trumbull to stay with him in Paris, and they struck up a nice friendship. Jefferson was only thirteen years older than Trumbull so he was old enough to be a mentor but not so old that they could not be friends and peers. It was Jefferson’s idea that the signing of the Declaration of Independence would be a wonderful subject for Trumbull’s Revolutionary War paintings.
JOHN TRUMBULL. Thomas Jefferson 1788. Paris, France.
In 1788, Trumbull painted his most famous images of Thomas Jefferson, aside from Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence painting. In fact, there is a sketch that Thomas Jefferson did in 1786 for Trumbull that shows what his ideas for the painting would be. The pencil marks are Trumbull’s writing, while Jefferson’s writing is the pen ink.
Thomas Jefferson. Ink. John Trumbull. Pencil.
It was also during this time that Trumbull would act as a go-between for Jefferson and Maria Cosway’s love affair. Jefferson’s wife Martha had died, and he had not yet begun his long-term relationship with Sally Hemings, and Cosway was artistic and elegant. Trumbull would ferry letters between Jefferson and Cosway to avoid the letters being read by others as a result of Jefferson’s diplomatic role in France. Trumbull would act as a go-between for the two for three years. In fact, there is an interesting tidbit about when Jefferson and Cosway first met. Jefferson attempting to impress Cosway tried to jump over a fence and hurt his right wrist while doing so. It is recorded that Jefferson had trouble with that wrist for the rest of his life and it always pained him when writing from that day forward. Trumbull did not paint Cosway but other paintings of her exist including a well-known self-portrait dated 1787.
Maria Cosway. Self- Portrait 1787. London, England.
On Jefferson’s return to the United States, he began an affair with Sally Hemings. Hemings was an enslaved woman belonging to Thomas Jefferson. She and he shared six children born during their relationship that would last until the end of Jefferson’s life. Thomas Jefferson’s late wife Martha was actually the half-sister of Sally Hemings. This is because Sally’s mother, Betty, was an enslaved person in the childhood home of Martha Jefferson and the two shared a father. Curiously, Betty was also the product of a slave/slave owner relationship, making Sally Hemings 75% white. This also made the children that Sally had with Jefferson were half siblings of his children with Martha, while also being first cousins. During their lifetimes, the Jefferson- Hemings relationship was well known, as a political enemy of Jefferson released the information to the newspapers. Jefferson never commented publicly about the scandal and in the end, it did not really affect his career.
Sally moved into Monticello, Jefferson’s home, when she was only two years old. She came with her mother, Betty, on the marriage of Martha and Thomas Jefferson. As she aged, she began helping with childcare of Jefferson’s daughters. When Sally was a teen, she traveled to Paris to continue her role of ladies maid to Jefferson’s daughters and lived there with the family for some time. It was at this time that Sally and Jefferson’s affair began. When it was time for Jefferson to return to Virginia, Sally was pregnant. She could have refused to return to the US as she was a free servant in France, not a slave, but instead she and Jefferson struck a deal. The promise that Jefferson made was that if she returned to Virginia any children that she had would be free on their twenty-first birthday. Sally trusted Jefferson enough that she returned to Virginia and Jefferson did keep his word. Sally moved into the main house of Monticello, albeit the servant wing, and lived a life that was much more comfortable than what would have been common in the lives of the other enslaved persons on the plantation. When Jefferson died, Sally left the plantation with her two remaining sons still living at home and spent the rest of her life as a free woman. Unfortunately, there are no known images of Sally Hemings. Pictured below are plans for Monticello. Thomas Jefferson was our only president thus far who was trained as an architect and was involved in all stages of building and planning.
Monticello: 2nd version (plan and west elevation), [1803], by Robert Mills. N155; K156. Monticello: 1st floor of 2nd version (plan), [1796], by Thomas Jefferson. N135; K150. Original manuscript from The Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Maria Cosway was a part of England’s first celebrity art couple. (n.d.). Yale Center for British Art. https://britishart.yale.edu/maria-cosway-was-part-englands-first-celebrity-art-couple
Architecture, H., & Architecture, H. (2021, September 15). Monticello. Hidden Architecture. https://hiddenarchitecture.net/monticello/
Brookhiser, Richard. Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution.
