Thaddeus Kosciuszko (Engraving)

Artist/Maker: Christian Josi (d.1828), engraver, after Joseph Grassi (1756-1838)

Created: c. 1796

Materials: stipple engraving

Dimensions: paper: 37.1 × 26 (14 5/8 × 10 1/4 in.)

Location: Parlor

Provenance: Library of Congress

Historical Notes: Jefferson found the Polish revolutionary Thaddeus Kosciuszko to be "as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone."[1] A print of Kosciuszko, probably taken after his portrait by Christian Josi, hung in the Parlor at Monticello as evidence of their friendship. This portrait celebrates Kosciuzsko's leadership of the Polish Revolution and shows him in his uniform of the hat and coat of the peasants he led.[2]

-Text from Stein, Worlds, 170

References

  1. ^ Jefferson to Horatio Gates, February 21, 1798, in PTJ, 30:123. Letterpress copy available online from the Library of Congress. Transcription available at Founders Online.
  2. ^ Robert H. Wilson, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and His Home in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Copernicus Society of America, 1976), 15.

Art Objects

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