Portrait of Thomas Jefferson
oil on panel
unsigned
8 1/2 x 7 inches.
The back of the frame retains several labels: a printed label reading MFA / 95 / BB and one printed M.F.A. with the lender’s name W.H. Whitmore and the number 19. Another handwritten label, of a similar age and style as the other two, reads T.J. Coolidge. The reverse of the frame and panel bear other chalk and pencil lettering.
Provenance:
From the collection of Mr. William Henry Whitmore (1836-1900);
then to the collection of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. (1863-1912), great great-grandson of President Thomas Jefferson;
purchased privately by the current owner.
According to records of the MFA Boston, Mr. W.H. Whitmore loaned twenty-two ‘cabinet size’ portraits to the museum in 1895. The loan record does not list an attribution or title for painting #19. The loan lasted from July 1895 to November 1899. Whitmore died shortly after in June of 1900. William Henry Whitmore was a prominent Boston politician and antiquarian, with many notable accomplishments during his time serving the city: president of the Boston Common Council (later City Council), trustee of the public library, founder of the Boston Antiquarian Society and editor of numerous genealogical and historical texts relating to the city and its leading families. He was also a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society alongside Thomas Jefferson Coolidge (1831-1920), prominent businessman and descendent of Thomas Jefferson.
Whitmore had a great love of art and painting, both on a scholarly and personal level. He researched and published on the subject of New England artists including John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) and Henry Pelham (1748-1806). Whitmore also practiced painting himself. A posthumous tribute given by historic preservationist William S. Appleton during an October 1900 meeting of the Historical Society mentions that Whitmore “devoted himself quite seriously to painting…It is not likely that he would ever have become a great artist…however, a study of a girl’s head, given me by himself…is far from bad, and is in fact a good and agreeable piece of work.” He was also a serious collector of art. The catalog of his estate sale, administered by C.F. Libbie & Co. Auctioneers on November 11-14, 1902, included hundreds of oil paintings, watercolors, and engravings. Among them was a series of twenty-two oil portraits of members of the ‘French Assembly,’ all French statesmen except for one, Thomas Jefferson. The catalog number for the portrait of Jefferson is 2783, the number visible in chalk on the back of the portrait offered here.
Given the societal connection between Whitmore and Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, it is likely that Coolidge, or his son Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. (1863-1912), purchased the paintings from the estate auction. The elder Coolidge was especially interested in acquiring items related to his great-grandfather to augment his inherited collection. A 1904 photo of ‘The Marble Palace’, Coolidge Jr.’s Monticello-inspired mansion in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, appears to show this portrait in the great hall. That room housed at least four other portraits of similar size with matching frames, indicating that at least a portion of the group was owned by the Coolidge family. Another painting from this series, the portrait of French politician Charles Malo Francois Lameth was sold in 2021 with other contents of ‘The Brick House,’ the last Coolidge family residence in Manchester (Eldred’s, July 15, 2021, Lot 216). Marble Palace was demolished in 1958 by Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III (1893-1959) and replaced with the Brick House which stood until 1989. While the houses were redecorated by each generation, many of the furnishings remained in the family. It is unknown when this painting was separated from the collection.
Unfortunately, the painter of this portrait, and likely the entire series, was not listed in the 1902 auction catalog, although the paintings were listed as contemporary at that time. Given the dates of the MFA loan, the paintings must date to the early 1890s if not earlier. Jefferson’s age and pose in this painting is very similar to two portrait engravings: one by Francois Jacques Dequevauvillier after Auguste-Gaspard Louis Desnoyers, circa 1824, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (D.C.) and one by William Holl Sr. after Bouch, early 19th century, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (London). If this portrait is meant to depict Jefferson during his time in France after the American Revolution, either of these, or their original versions, could have served as a visual source for an American or French artist.
