Thomas Jefferson, 1786

Oil on canvas; 91.4 x 71.1 x (36 x 28 1/16 in). There are two copies: (1) National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian), Washington, DC; (2) Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello, Charlottesville, VA.

Life portrait, age 43, the earliest-known portrait of Jefferson.

Jefferson visited England in the spring of 1786 as Ambassador of France and sat for Brown in London. Two copies were created. One for himself, and another commissioned by John Adams.

Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense (1775), urging the colonies to declare their independence, found 150,000 purchasers in a population of less than 3 million — the equivalent today of a sale of 14 million.

— Richard Brookhiser

Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution (2003)