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.
[Major General Henry] Knox proudly stepped aside on Tuesday, October 9 [1781] to allow Washington the honor of igniting the bore hole of a heavy siege gun and ceremoniously discharging the first shot from the American battery at Yorktown. The shell was clearly visible as it streaked across the sky and land with precision within the British compound, setting off cheers throughout the American ranks. The Continental artillery corps then continued an uninterrupted stream of fire that produced a relentless, unnerving, and deafening roar. Cornwallis would later recall: The fire continued incessant from heavy cannon, and from mortars and howitzers throwing shells from 8 to 16 inches, until all our guns on the left were silenced, our work much damaged, and our loss of men considerable