LES ANTIQUITÉS D'HERCULANUM AVEC LEURS EXPLICATIONS EN FRANÇOIS

Paris: Chez David, 1780-1781.. Six volumes consisting of I, II, IIII, V, VI, and VII (without volumes III and VIII). With hundreds of illustrations. Contemporary mottled French calf, neatly rebacked in matching style, spines gilt extra, leather labels stamped in gilt. A bit of light scattered foxing, but generally quite clean internally. A handsome set. An absolutely phenomenal association copy of this influential study of the antiquities of the Italian city of Herculaneum, destroyed during an explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. This set of LES ANTIQUITÉS D'HERCULANUM... was given by Thomas Jefferson to his young protégé, painter John Trumbull. Jefferson has inscribed it on the front fly leaf of the first volume" "Th. J. begs Mr. Trumbull will do him the favor to accept this copy of the Herculaneum." Jefferson was instrumental in furthering Trumbull's career at an early stage and in encouraging him to create his painting of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence. That painting is one of Trumbull's most important and iconic works, and in placing Jefferson at the center of that scene Trumbull helped to cement the Jefferson image in the American mind.

Jefferson and Trumbull first met in London in early 1786, when Trumbull was thirty and Jefferson thirteen years his elder. At the time Trumbull was studying painting under Benjamin West, but was planning to visit Paris to study the artworks available there. Jefferson invited Trumbull to stay with him at his Paris residence, the Hotel de Langeac, and the two quickly became close. In fact, Trumbull joined William S. Smith and Jefferson's secretary, William Short, in the small group of people that Jefferson asked to perform tasks or "commissions" for him. Trumbull lived with Jefferson for five or six weeks at the Hotel de Langeac, and Jefferson encouraged Trumbull in his early historical paintings. Trumbull had brought with him to Paris two of his recent historical paintings, "Death of General Warren at Bunker's Hill" and "Death of General Montgomery at Quebec," which he wanted to have engraved. It was almost certainly at Jefferson's suggestion and encouragement that Trumbull added the Declaration of Independence to his series of American historical paintings. With Jefferson's assistance and recollection of the event, Trumbull began his painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was Trumbull's placing of Jefferson at the center of his painting, flanked by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, that helped cement the centrality of Jefferson's role as author of the Declaration in the public consciousness. Merrill Peterson asserts: "In the panegyrics of the Fourth of July...the popularity of Trumbull's masterpiece of historical portraiture, 'The Signing of the Declaration' - Jefferson's authorship of the American birthright was his certain title to immortality."

Jefferson espoused Trumbull's talents and introduced him to important people in Paris, and Trumbull repaid the favor in consequential ways. Jefferson's biographer, Dumas Malone, writes: "Jefferson was on the most intimate terms with Trumbull until the very end of his stay in France, and he always associated him in memory with what he called 'our charming coterie in Paris.'" That coterie included Maria Cosway, the beautiful and vivacious young wife of English portraitist Richard Cosway. Trumbull had already met the Cosways and introduced them to Jefferson in Paris in August 1786 at the Halle aux Bleds marketplace. The widowed Jefferson became enraptured with Maria Cosway and spent a great deal of time with her between August and October, 1786. Trumbull was often with the pair, touring art galleries, attending concerts, walking around Paris and journeying into the countryside. On Oct. 12, 1786, on the occasion of the Cosways return to England, Jefferson wrote Maria Cosway an anguished letter in which he related a debate between "my head and my heart." It was to Trumbull that Jefferson entrusted the delivery of this confidential and revealing letter. Trumbull was also an intermediary for Jefferson's friendship with Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton's sister-in-law. Mrs. Church and Maria Cosway were good friends, referring to each other as "sisters." Jefferson, in fact, helped Mrs. Church secure a volume of the HERCULANUM in September 1788 (see Jefferson letter of Sept. 21, 1788 in PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, Vol. 13, pp.623-24). It is possible the gift of this set to Trumbull took place at the same time.

The friendship between Jefferson and Trumbull continued after Trumbull left Paris for London and the United States. In 1788, Jefferson commissioned from Trumbull a canvas containing life-size busts of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Isaac Newton, whom Jefferson considered as "the three greatest men that have ever lived." Also in 1788, Trumbull painted a portrait of Jefferson, and would later make copies of that portrait for Maria Cosway, Angelica Church, and Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha. In 1789, anticipating that William Short was about to move on to other endeavors, Jefferson offered John Trumbull the position of his personal secretary, an offer that Trumbull declined. Sometime after that Jefferson recommended Trumbull for the position of American Minister to the Barbary states, a post that Trumbull also declined. In 1793, Jefferson and Trumbull (a Federalist and a New England Congregationalist) had a falling out over questions of politics and religious faith, issues that came to a head at a dinner Jefferson hosted that also included the Virginia politician, William Branch Giles. Trumbull and Giles already had bad blood between them, and when Jefferson seemingly took Giles' side, Trumbull recalled that "from this time my acquaintance with Mr. Jefferson became cold and distant."

Jefferson's gift to Trumbull of this set of Maréchal's LES ANTIQUITÉS D'HERCULANUM is significant on several levels. Excavations at Herculaneum, destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., had begun in 1738. The publication of illustrated books such as those of Maréchal, showing the antiquities preserved and discovered at Herculaneum, had an important effect on the growing popularity of Neoclassical styles and themes in contemporary European and American art. Jefferson himself owned a set of Maréchal's work (although it was not among the works sold to the Library of Congress; it appears in the 1828 sale catalogue of his retained library), and he not only gave this set to Trumbull, but ordered a set for the library at the University of Virginia as well. And as mentioned, Jefferson also assisted in securing a volume of the set for Angelica Church in 1788. Jefferson himself was very influenced by classical styles, as evidenced in his architectural designs for Monticello and the University of Virginia. John Trumbull was also greatly influenced by classical art and was a central figure in the Neoclassical revival in America. This work would have been very important in the development of his artistic style. The first five volumes in Maréchal's work (i.e. volumes I, II, IIII, and V in the present set) are devoted to painting, and volumes VI and VII are concerned with bronzes.

An outstanding association copy, uniting Thomas Jefferson with one of his most talented protégés, John Trumbull, whose painting of Jefferson presenting the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 did so much to establish Jefferson in the pantheon of America's Founding Fathers. William Howard Adams, THE PARIS YEARS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON (New Haven, 1997). Dumas Malone, JEFFERSON AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN (New York, 1951). Merrill D. Peterson, THE JEFFERSON IMAGE IN THE AMERICAN MIND (New York, 1960), p.140. O'NEAL, JEFFERSON'S FINE ARTS LIBRARY 78.