|
Back to exhibition
Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull
Paris Feb. 15. 1789.
Dear Sir
I have duly received your favor of the 5th. inst. with respect
to the busts & pictures I will put off till my return from
America all of them except Bacon, Locke and Newton, whose pictures
I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider them
as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception,
and as having laid the foundations of those superstructures which
have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences, I would
wish to form them into a knot on the same canvas, that they may
not be confounded at all with the herd of other great men. to
do this I suppose we need only desire the copyist to draw the
three busts in three ovals all contained in a larger oval in some
such form as this
Bacon at top: Locke next then Newton
each bust to be of the size of the life. the large oval would
I suppose be between four & five feet. perhaps you can suggest
a better way of accomplishing my idea. in your hands be it, as
well as the subaltern expences you mention. I trouble you with
a letter to mrs Church. we have no important news here but of
the revolution of Geneva, which is not yet sufficiently explained.
but they have certainly reformed their government. I am with great
esteem Dr. Sir Your affectionate friend & humble servt. Th.
Jefferson
Back to exhibition
|
