Artist’s Statement
As a Greek American, I was drawn to Thomas Jefferson through the relationship between the two countries that have shaped my life. His exchange with Adamantios Korais made that connection especially meaningful to me.
George Petrides
Greece and America
I was born in Athens and work between Athens and New York. Greek history and culture are part of my life and my sculpture. In Jefferson, I found an American figure whose engagement with Greece offered a subject I could approach personally.
Jefferson studied ancient Greek language and thought. What particularly inspired me, however, was his interest in the future of modern Greece. Through Korais, that interest became a direct conversation.
Adamantios Korais
Korais was a Greek scholar whose editions of classical texts connected the ancient Greek world with the intellectual life of his own time. To me, his dialogue with Jefferson makes the connection between Greece and America particularly tangible.
On July 10, 1823, during the Greek War of Independence, Korais wrote to Jefferson seeking advice on government for the emerging Greek state. They had met in Paris years earlier. Jefferson answered from Monticello on October 31; Korais replied on December 28.
A conversation about self-government
Jefferson’s reply discussed representation, the legislature, the judiciary, and public education. He urged thoughtful selection from American experience rather than the wholesale adoption of another country’s constitution. He also distinguished an appreciation of ancient Greece from an attempt to reproduce its political institutions in a different age.
For me, the exchange has a particular resonance: a Greek scholar and an American statesman considering how learning and practical experience might serve the future of Greece. It is a relationship between people, as well as between countries, and that is something I wanted to express through a portrait.
Read Jefferson’s October 31, 1823 letter to Korais at the National Archives.
A sculpture for the anniversary
The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 gave me an occasion to express that connection through sculpture. I wanted to make a portrait that would bring Jefferson into a shared space and invite people to consider this part of his relationship with Greece.
Offering the sculpture as a donation is my contribution as a Greek-American artist to that anniversary and to the continuing conversation between the two countries.