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Thomas Jefferson Writing the Declaration of Independence

Date1898

Illustration Citation"The Story of the Revolution," by Henry Cabot Lodge, in Scribner's Magazine, March 1898. The Story of the Revolution, by Henry Cabot Lodge (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1898).

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions36 1/4 × 24 in. (92.1 × 61 cm)
frame: 41 1/2 × 29 1/4 in. (105.4 × 74.3 cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 1912

Object number1912-90

On View

On view

Label TextIn 1897 Scribner’s Magazine commissioned Pyle to create twelve illustrations to accompany a year-long serialization of Henry Cabot Lodge’s “Story of the Revolution.” Here Pyle shows Thomas Jefferson as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.

The text does not describe Jefferson's surroundings. Pyle's heroic figure illuminated by candlelight at a small desk evokes the historian's text: "Jefferson was setting forth the reasons for a revolution, asserting a great, new principle for which men were to be asked to die. His task was to make it all as simple, yet as splendid as possible...Jefferson uttered, in a noble and enduring manner, what was stirring in the hearts of his people."