Thomas Jefferson Randolph (Portrait)
From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)
Oil on paper
1808
27 x 23 inches
Description: A bust-length portrait of Thomas Jefferson Randolph [1]who is shown seated in a red chair with his body turned to the left. He faces the viewer and wears a black coat with a white shirt and cravat. A brown book is held before him, held open to a page by a finger. The background is a simple brown.
History: At the time of this 1808 portrait’s completion, the sixteen-year-old grandson of then-President Thomas Jefferson was living in the artist’s, (Charles Peale) household in Philadelphia while attending the University of Pennsylvania. Peale was a longtime friend of Jefferson and made the portrait as a pledge of his esteem, writing that he hoped it would be “long in your view.” Jefferson, on receiving the painting, answered, “I must write you a short letter returning you a thousand thanks for the portrait of my grandson, which is indeed inimitably done… it will be a treasure to his parents & not less so to me.” The painting hung in the Parlor at Monticello for the rest of Jefferson’s life.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph (1792-1875), called “Jeff” by the family, was the president’s oldest grandson. Although Jefferson had high hopes for his education, the young man did not have the depth of intellect of his namesake. He nonetheless made a diligent effort to pursue his studies. In letters to Jefferson, Peale expressed concern about Jeff’s too-dogged effort at study that kept him up very late night after night. After his return to Monticello, instead of preparing for a hoped-for legal career at the College of William and Mary, he completed his studies by 1810 in Louis H. Giradin’s school at Richmond. The young man would hold his grandfather as his model, feeling somewhat unable to measure up. He wrote in his memoirs that his grandfather hung his portrait in the “second row of portraits,” explaining to Randolph, “You will always occupy the second.”
Regardless of this uncharacteristically unfeeling comment that Jeff recorded many years afterwards, Thomas Jefferson relied greatly on his diligent and hardworking grandson who took over the immense task of supervising the Jefferson-Randolph properties and finances. In his memoirs, Jeff wrote:
In after life when I would lament to my mother the disadvantage I suffered from neglected education, she would reply, “My son, if you had been in professional or in public life, what would have become of us?” I assented, regretting the necessity of the sacrifice, but never the sacrifice.
As Jefferson’s sole executor, Jeff had to salvage what he could of his grandfather’s estate to provide for his mother and her children. Through the following decades he was able to make some money from his own lands at Edgehill and through canal and railroad ventures. He gained great respect as a leading citizen of Virginia and Albemarle County and a national proponent of Jeffersonian principles. Inheriting his grandfather’s longevity, Thomas Jefferson Randolph enjoyed a "vigorous and beautiful old age," living to age 83.
Provenance: This portrait was not released in the liquidation sale in 1828; it was held back with other paintings by Martha Jefferson Randolph. It was given to Jeff and was retained by his descendants until its presentation to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1979.
Footnote
- ↑ This article based on Elizabeth O'Leary, Monticello Research Report, July 1988.
