Thomas Jefferson
American Portraiture, c. 1821
- Artist
- American Portraiture
- Date
- c. 1821
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 66 × 54.5 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Licence
- Public domain, CC0
Image description
Shown from the chest up, a clean shaven, middle-aged man with pale, rosy skin and curly, pewter-gray hair, looks at or toward us against a caramel-brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he turns his face slightly to look our way with honey-brown eyes under straight, faint eyebrows. He has a long, prominent nose, and his pink lips are closed in a straight line. His gray hair is parted in the middle, curls around his face, and down the back of his neck. He wears a bright white, high-necked, ruffled shirt under a velvety black jacket. Light illuminating the man from our left creates a golden glow on the light brown background behind him.