The most inadvertently prophetic words that Adams ever uttered were his last: Thomas Jefferson survives.
For it was the Jeffersonian image that broke free of the aggregated anonymity, the founders
or the fathers,
and eventually ascended into heaven with Washington. During the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Jeffersonian legacy became the most adaptable and all-purpose political touchstone in American political history.
Rembrandt Peale (1778—1860)
Oil on canvas; 75.6 x 64.5 x 3.2cm (29 3/4 x 25 3/8 x 1 1/4"). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Oil on canvas. 73.02 x 60.01 cm (28 3/4 x 23 5/8 in). Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
Oil on canvas; 71.5 inches x 53.25 inches (181.6 cm x 135.3 cm). U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Oil on canvas; 137 1/2 x 120 1/2 in. (3.5 x 3 m). Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Oil on paper laid down on board; 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm). Private collection.
Oil on canvas; 89.5 x 71.9cm (35 1/4 x 28 5/16"). National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian), Washington, DC.
Oil on canvas; 89.5 x 71.8cm (35 1/4 x 28 1/4"). National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian), Washington, DC.
Pen and black ink with ink wash, heightened with white opaque watercolor over traces of graphite on tan wove paper; 11 15/16 x 10 13/16 inches (
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (1993)