I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.--Thomas Jefferson on popular sovreignty, letter to W.C. Jarvis, 1820. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Object Details

Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Artist
John Atherton, born Brainerd, MN 1900-died New Brunswick, Canada 1952
Sitter
Thomas Jefferson
Date
1952-1953
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Medium
gouache and paper on paperboard
Dimensions
sheet: 22 x 18 1/8 in. (55.8 x 46.0 cm)
Type
Painting
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