Mrs. James Madison, c. 1817

Oil on canvas; 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 61 cm). New-York Historical Society, New York, NY.

This portrait of Dolley Madison was originally in the Peale Museum in Philadelphia and formerly attributed to Rembrandt Peale.

I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living; that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it. This, with its echo of the Declaration (self-evident) was Jefferson at his most terse. Except for the phrase in usufruct — a legalism meaning the right to use property for a certain time — Jefferson’s words could be chiseled in stone, or shouted on the hustings.

— Richard Brookhiser

James Madison (2011)