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.
William Rush (1756—1833)
North American white pine; 54.6 x 40 x 38.1 cm (21 1/2 x 15 3/4 x 15 in.) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
Terra cotta; 18 3/4 x 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (47.625 x 39.37 x 31.75 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Terracotta; 19 x 14 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (48.26 x 37.465 x 28.575 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Pine; painted white. Independence National Historical Park, Portrait Collection (Second Bank of the United States), Philadelphia, PA.
Terra cotta. Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia, PA.
Bronze, stone base; 22 x 17 x 11 in. (55.9 x 43.2 x 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.
Terra cotta; painted white. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Known as the Pine Knot Portrait.
Bronze; H: 60 m.; W: 47 m.; D: 26 m. Musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt, Picardy, France.
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.
Wood with paint. The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA.
James Madison (2011)