C. Vann Woodward has written of Jefferson, It fell to the lot of one Virginian to define America.
It was in his private life that Jefferson defined the relationship between blacks and whites in America, acting out in the most specific sense the psychosexual dilemma of the whole nation. Other great men in history have loved unlettered women, among them Rousseau and Goethe, each of whom lived for years with virtually illiterate mistresses and then in the end married them. But Jefferson’s dilemma was peculiarly American. So savage were the penalties of this kind of love in the New World that he could neither admit it nor defend it without fear of social ostracism, and he had to keep up an elaborate pretense that it did not exist. He could not openly, and perhaps even privately admit his paternity to Sally’s children.
Marquis de Lafayette
by Charles Peale Polk (1767—1822)
Oil on canvas. Stratford Hall, Home of the Lees of Virginia, Stratford, VA.
by Charles Willson Peale (1741—1827)
Oil on canvas; 93" x 64". Annapolis Complex Collection (in the old Senate Chamber at Maryland State House), Annapolis, MD.
by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741—1828)
Cast when Marquis de Lafayette was 28.
by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741—1828)
Based on the life mask cast by Houdon in 1785.
by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741—1828)
Marble. State Artwork Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA.
by William Rush (1756—1833)
Bronze; H: 60 m.; W: 47 m.; D: 26 m. Musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt, Picardy, France.
by William Rush (1756—1833)
Terra cotta; 21 x 18 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (53.34 x 47.625 x 28.575 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
by Thomas Sully (1783—1872)
Oil on canvas. Independence National Historical Park, Portrait Collection (Second Bank of the United States), Philadelphia, PA.
Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (1974)