To celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary (Semiquincentennial), I have tasked myself with creating a special painting. I could not think of a better subject than Thomas Jefferson drafting The Declaration of Independence!
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| Thomas Jefferson Drafting The Declaration of Independence, oil on linen, 3'x5' by Jason Dowd (Note: No Artificial Intelligence/AI, was used in the creation of this painting) |
Surprisingly, in my research, I have not yet found an American fine artist in our 250 years as a nation, who has painted Mr. Jefferson actually drafting The Declaration of Independence. Two Golden Age illustrators, Howard Pyle (the Father of American illustration) and his student N.C. Wyeth, a Golden Age illustrator of the highest order, have depicted scenes of Thomas Jefferson in this scenario, both commissioned by Scribner's. With the greatest respect for both of these artists, they show Mr. Jefferson working at night. My research has shown that Mr. Jefferson was an early riser, meaning that he preferred to write in the morning hours. One other factor for consideration is that my painting was not created for, nor commissioned by a commercial client. It stands as an inspired painting meant to inform and educate American citizens about our democracy and the principles laid down by our Founding Fathers.
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| Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1803 |
I enjoy history and love creating historical paintings. There is so much richness in learning about the past. Humanity and related historic events are engaging, though often messy, which causes me to ponder carefully the details involved. For example, we know that Thomas Jefferson drafted The Declaration of Independence. But where did he draft this world-changing document? What time of day did he prefer to write? Did others have any say about the language used? These are questions that I, as a historical artist, dutifully researched in order to create an authentic painting. And so, in my research, I discovered the answers to the preceding questions and much more. The stages set forth here represent many dedicated hours of reading, researching, sketching, drawing, traveling, interacting with experts, photographing models and props, stretching linen, and finally painting Mr. Jefferson. The entire process, including this entry in my blog, has taken approximately nine months to complete. Each step will be thoroughly discussed as I painstakingly build this most celebrated of subjects. This is my artistic journey. I hope that you find it an intriguing process.
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| Thumbnail sketch of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration House room, 3" x 5" |
I am a direct artist, conceptually speaking. By this I mean that my first thumbnail sketch is often close to my final painting. Such is the case here. One of the most important considerations of Thomas Jefferson Drafting The Declaration of Independence is the camera angle of the room. Deciding what the most important elements are for the viewer to see is crucial to this painting's success. Mr. Jefferson's face and The Declaration of Independence itself are the two key points of interest, historically and visually. However, in order to capture a sense of authenticity, the Declaration House room must also be recognizable. These factors created an interesting visual problem to solve. If the text of the document is to be readable, the angle must be one of looking downward. Artists refer to this angle as a "bird's eye" view. How then should the viewer be able to see Mr. Jefferson's face if they are looking over his shoulder at the document? The answer came in some research that I had done regarding his genius for invention. It so happens that Mr. Jefferson invented the swivel chair. Therefore, the solution was simple. By rotating the chair a few degrees to the left, the viewer would have a clear view of his face as well as the document he is drafting. At this point, I became very excited about the direction of this work.
The next crucial step in this process was locating a suitable model to pose as Thomas Jefferson. Ideally, this model would strongly resemble Mr. Jefferson. But where to start? These days, most people (myself included) begin any research online. As luck would have it, I quickly found photos of Mr. Steve Edenbo
associated with The History Channel's documentary of Thomas Jefferson. After comparing likenesses of these gentleman, it was easy to see that this was a match!
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| Steve Edenbo next to sculpture of Mr. Jefferson |
During the research stage, I have discovered that things have an almost eery way of falling into place when I am on the right track. It is a wonderful feeling for an artist to have this sense of mysterious reinforcement. Due to Steve's strong presence online, it was easy to find his contact information. Thankfully, when I reached out, Steve was as much of a kind professional as I'd hoped. He was very receptive to the idea of modeling for my project. Of course, it was familiar terrain for him, as he's been studying and reenacting Mr. Jefferson for 26 years! We arranged a time for a call. And soon, our conversation began about the details of where the Declaration was drafted, how he should be dressed, what time of day Mr. Jefferson preferred to write, etc. Steve was gracious with his time, offering his years of expertise. At times, it felt as if I were speaking to Mr. Jefferson himself. After approximately two hours, I'd managed to jot down three pages of notes. We excitedly acknowledged our new creative partnership and would stay in touch as events progressed.
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| Woodford Mansion. Philadelphia, PA. |
I would like to express my thanks to the gracious staff at Woodford Mansion for allowing me to photograph Steve, as Mr. Jefferson, in such a magnificent American home. Having access to this historical landmark added depth of knowledge and authenticity to my painting.
Historical details are fascinating and also never ending. In this instance, I was eager to learn as many facts as possible about Thomas Jefferson's life, especially his time in Philadelphia during June, 1776. From my research, which consisted of reputable resources including Monticello, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Parks Service, Steve Edenbo, and all relevant biographical books about Mr. Jefferson, a more accurate picture of the scene began to form.
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| Thomas Jefferson's portable writing desk, circa 1775-76. The Smithsonian Institution. Photo taken by Jason Dowd. For example, Mr. Jefferson designed a portable writing desk. Cabinetmaker Benjamin Randolph was commissioned to build it. This mahogany desk (shown above), as seen in my painting, was used when Mr. Jefferson drafted The Declaration of Independence. It was a unique piece of equipment that had a tilted writing surface with extendable legs, which also opened to create twice the space for larger paper. Inside the locking drawer was an inkwell and sections for storing quills and paper. |
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| Thomas Jefferson's swivel chair, circa 1776. The American Philosophical Society. As previously mentioned, Mr. Jefferson invented the swivel chair. He improved on the English Windsor chair by adding four window sash rollers and a central iron pin to the chair's base (photos available online). This allowed the new action of rotating, or swiveling, the chair from one area to another, eliminating the need to continuously stand up. |
As a fine artist painting historical scenes, it is of the utmost importance to research relevant details as precisely as possible. My objective is to inform an audience about what they are viewing. This careful study maintains a sense of authenticity. In this painting, celebrating our 250th anniversary (Semiquincentennial), it is important to create a plausible re-creation of the event as it may have been.
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| Plan to View Perspective Grid. Created manually/digitally by Jason Dowd in Photoshop (no AI). |
I teach Advanced Perspective at Laguna College of Art and Design. These skills, as I tell all of my students, are essential when there is a need to draw a building, house, or in this case, a room. Per my initial concept of having the viewer see both The Declaration of Independence and Mr. Jefferson's face, the room needed to be seen at a "bird's eye" view. The basic floor Plan is seen at top of the drawing and is then brought down into the View. The Grid is the method of proportion regarding height, width, and depth of people, furniture, and objects. For scale, I added Mr. Jefferson in his swivel chair (above). This 2-Point perspective also allows for a considerable amount of the room itself to become an integral part of the scene. Interestingly, this painting is as much a portrait of the Declaration House room as it is of Thomas Jefferson.
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| Detail of View/Grid |
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| Graphite overlay drawing on tissue paper (Grid underneath) of Declaration House room |
This drawing took many hours of studying my own reference photos in order to properly draw/construct each piece of furniture. The Gateleg table, with its many intricate shapes, was the most challenging piece to draw. However, each object had its own unique designs, curves, and angles, all contributing to the Colonial period aesthetic.
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| Thomas Jefferson holding his writing quill. Graphite, charcoal, and white charcoal on Strathmore gray toned paper. Drawing by Jason Dowd. |
At this stage, it was time to create a "working drawing" of Mr. Jefferson in full value and detail. By this, I mean a relatively final image of the pose and clothing. The face (above) is stylized and not yet what I am looking for in the final painting. Drawing on toned paper is a wonderful way to save time and simultaneously gain a painterly effect of light and shadow. Having this middle ground value allowed me to register lights and darks, while leaving much of the space as the original paper.
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| Oil-primed linen stretched on 3'x5' stretcher bars purchased from Upper Canada Stretchers |
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| Completed stretched linen |
After finalizing the drawing stage, it was time to order the stretcher bars. In years past, I entrusted Upper Canada Stretchers to provide a sturdy, well-crafted foundation for my paintings. True to their word of offering easy to assemble strong/square stretchers, they earned my trust, delivering a high quality product. It is, once again, a pleasure to work with them. Stretching linen is more challenging than stretching canvas. First, I pulled the linen to the center of each side, then stapled that point. Continuing around the perimeter, I stapled up to the corners where I then carefully folded and stapled the finishing corners. Next, I gently but firmly used a hammer to tap the "keys" into the corners and center slots of the stretcher bars. This essential step tightened the linen like a drum and I gave it a good thump for testing, and good luck.
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| JD transferring drawing to linen |
Fortunately, I am a professor at Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD), where I have access to technical equipment. Here, I am transferring the drawing with a brush using Raw Umber oil paint instead of graphite, to eliminate the painstaking step of drawing in pencil first, then painting the lines. The Epson projector (not seen) allows me to position the image squarely on the linen surface. Being able to first see the image projected minimized compositional errors, and as importantly, greatly assisted with tracing my own drawing without having to redraw difficult elements, such as the antique furniture. Traditionally, artists would use a "grid" of squares to transfer a smaller preliminary drawing to a final canvas surface. This method was effective, but it was also tedious and time-consuming.
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| Contour transfer on linen using Raw Umber oil paint |
Here, the real scene begins to emerge. After much travel, research, photography, technical deliberation, and drawing, the fulfilling work of painting awaits.
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| Step 1. Establishing the value of the walls and matching the color of the window trim |
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| Paint color: Benjamin Moore HC-118 |
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| The Declaration House. Philadelphia. Independence National Historical Park. |
By way of research and discussion, I discovered the exact paint color that was used by the National Parks Service when they recreated the Declaration House room's window trim for the Bicentennial in 1976. In fact, Benjamin Moore created this line of 191 "Historic Colors" for the Bicentennial. These colors are based on historic American architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. (Note: Due to the informal photography and lighting used to record each painting stage, the HC-118 color in each frame may vary)
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| Step 2. Completed window and base board trim |
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| Step 3. Painting the base color of the swivel chair |
The rich Transparent Red Oxide (Rembrandt brand) color used as a base for the swivel chair gives a layered appearance to what might otherwise be a flat color (black). In some areas, I let this deep brown color show through where everyday wear might occur.
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| Step 4. Blocking in local color of the portable desk, High Boy, Grandfather clock, Gateleg table, old-style chair, violin case, and table in the far left corner |
This painting is relatively muted in its color palette, reminiscent of the American Colonial period. It was interesting to determine variations of brown hues for the different wood of the furniture and flooring. I chose to keep these chromas toward the warm side of the color wheel (yellow/orange/red), which offered a nice contrast against Mr. Jefferson's blue coat, the green trim and white walls.
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| Step 5. Blocking in the quill Mr. Jefferson is holding, paper upon the portable desk (Declaration), violin, cup and extra quills, candlestick, bottle of sand (for drying the ink quickly), reflections on table, stocking, and shoes |
The painting is now feeling unified in terms of value and color. Some light effects, on the Grandfather clock and High Boy, express the idea of additional windows outside of the Picture Plane (left/right sides). There are a total of four large windows in this room. The violin, possibly a creation by Andrea Amati, is seen resting on its case across the table. Music was very important to Mr. Jefferson and he often played the violin as a break from his work.
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| Step 6. Rendering Mr. Jefferson's coat, pants, overpainting the chair black, and adding cast shadows on table surface |
The added contrast of the swivel chair creates a prominent dark shape which helps to bring the viewer's eye to the main focal point.
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| Step 7. Adding the face of the Grandfather clock, July (left) and June (right) calendars (upper left corner of room), and additional cast shadow on wall behind corner table |
Within the details of the clock face and chairs, I decided to add some layers of conceptual/historical interest. Nowadays, the nickname for these elements is known as "Easter eggs." In other words, they are details meant for an interested viewer to discover. I set the time on the clock face to 10:19am. This designation of time is consistent with the time that Mr. Jefferson elected to write. He preferred the morning, beginning at sunrise, and finishing at about 1:00pm in the afternoon. Contributing factors may have been that it was hot in June in Philadelphia, so it would be cooler to begin his work before the hottest part of the day. With specific regard to 10:19am, this is the date (October 19th) that the British, under the leadership of Lord Charles Cornwallis, surrendered to the Colonial Army at Yorktown, in 1781. This American victory signified the last major battle of the American Revolution, clearing the way for American independence. Though the war did not conclude officially until 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris (seen below), the final days of the war were numbered. Visually, this seemed an appropriate way of showing the birth of our democracy and marking our moment of victory. The chairs also have a story to tell. The stationary/non-swivel chair opposite Mr. Jefferson represents "old world" thinking (i.e. Feudalism, Monarchy, etc.). This outdated mode of enslaving a country's people for the benefit of the king (i.e. the wealthy), led people to leave Europe in search of freedom. The swivel chair, invented by Mr. Jefferson, represents the "Enlightenment" movement of the 18th century. Championed by educated people such as Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, and John Locke (among others), these men created a movement based on knowledge through reason, natural rights, secularism, and the social contract. These ideas were the foundation for our democracy.
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| The Treaty of Paris (original document). The National Archives. USC Fisher Museum. Photo taken by Jason Dowd. |
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| The Treaty of Paris (original document), detail. The National Archives. USC Fisher Museum. Photo taken by Jason Dowd. |
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| Step 8. Painting the text of The Declaration of Independence, adding the cast shadows from the table and chairs onto the floor, painting details of the High Boy drawer pulls and darkening their value of (essentially "pushing" them back in space) |
Painting the text of the Declaration was a bit of a mystery until it came time to paint it. Why? Because I was not sure what the exact size of the text would be until I painted the first line. My original hope was to have all of the text be legible. However, the only words that can be read clearly are "the United States of America." Interestingly, this is the first document to use that title for our nation. I did my very best to match the original document in terms of text structure, placement, corrections (i.e. lines that had been crossed out), and spacing. In spite of the type being so tiny, if you know the words of the document (and you have good eyes), you can make out what is written. Here is the type as it is painted: "A Declaration by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in General Congress assembled. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." The text here is as it is written on Thomas Jefferson's actual draft, not the way it is transcribed in most literature. Certain words, such as "God" and "Creator" have been capitalized in books, henceforth. For authenticity's sake, I painted the words according to the original hand-written draft.
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| Step 9. Painting Thomas Jefferson's personal seal "REBELLION TO TYRANTS IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD" in the lower third of the painting, rays of sunlight through the window, adding a light reflection to the face of the Grandfather clock to make it look like glass, painting a newspaper on the table in the upper left corner, and detailing the floor with wood grain pattern |
This most important stage brings us to the true statement of the painting, as a work of art. Presently, at our 250th anniversary of the founding of The United States of America, the evidence shows that we are once again in the talons of a tyrant. As an American citizen, and as an American artist, I am choosing to express my rights to speak out in favor of democracy over the whims of a tyrant. I firmly stand with Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers against any person who desecrates the principles for which so many Americans have fought and died throughout our history.
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| Thomas Jefferson's Personal Seal. Monticello. |
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| Thomas Jefferson Drafting The Declaration of Independence, oil on linen, 3'x5' by Jason Dowd |
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| Victor Mayén and his assistant, Roberto, holding the finished frame at Mayén/Olson Framemakers & Goldleaf Studio |
I wish to express my grateful thanks to Victor Mayén for crafting this wonderful 22-Karat gold hand-carved frame. Victor was very patient and attentive to the details of this project. It was my pleasure and privilege to work with him. He kindly recorded the process of making the frame, seen in the following pictures.
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| Basswood frame base |
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| Corner detail |
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| Carved quill |
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| Ludo Leideritz photographing my painting of Thomas Jefferson Drafting The Declaration of Independence |
I wish to express my grateful thanks to Ludo Leideritz (Reflective Image Studios) for photographing my painting. Ludo has shown the greatest of patience in working with me to answer my questions, color correct my work in Photoshop, and serve as printer and distributor for my print series of this painting.
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Thomas Jefferson Drafting The Declaration of Independence
by Jason Dowd
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