Historical context
In 1823, in the third year of the Greek Revolution, the Greek scholar Adamantios Korais asked Thomas Jefferson for advice on constitutional government for the emerging Greek state.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the first Secretary of State, and the third President of the United States. He founded the University of Virginia and designed its campus, as he had designed Monticello.
A lifelong reader of Greek and Latin, he drew on the architecture and political thought of the classical world in shaping the institutions and buildings of the new nation.
Korais (1748–1833), a classical scholar living in Paris, wrote to Jefferson on 10 July 1823. The two had met in Paris some thirty-five years earlier, when Jefferson was American minister to France.
Jefferson replied from Monticello on 31 October 1823 with a long account of the American system, including representation, the two houses of the legislature, the judiciary and public education. He advised careful selection from American experience rather than wholesale adoption. Korais answered on 28 December 1823.
Jefferson House, Athens
Jefferson House is the residence of the United States Ambassador to Greece. A portrait of Jefferson on its grounds gives the shared history of the two countries a physical presence for the guests and delegations received there.
The sculpture commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 4 July 2026.
Jefferson’s legacy includes his ownership of enslaved people. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, he enslaved more than 610 people during his lifetime. The portrait commemorates his role in the founding of the United States and his exchange with Korais; it does not set that history aside.
Source: Slavery at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
