Thaddeus Kosciuszko (Engraving)

Artist/Maker: Christian Josi (d.1828), engraver, after Joseph Grassi (1756-1838)^[1]

Created: c. 1796

Materials: stipple engraving

Dimensions: paper: 37.1 x 26 (14 5/8 x 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 to the rich alone."^[2] 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.^[3]

Footnotes

1. ↑ This article is based on Stein, Worlds, 170.
2. ↑ Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, Philadelphia, February 21, 1798. in L&B, 9:441-443. Letterpress copy available online from the Library of Congress.
3. ↑ Robert H. Wilson, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and his Home in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Copernicus Society of America, 1976), 15.