Le Dejeune de Ferney. Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.

Artist/Maker: Denis Née (c. 1732-1818) and Louis Masquelier (1741-1811), engravers, after Baron Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825)

Created: 1775

Origin/Purchase: France

Materials: engraving

Dimensions: 14.3 × 18.1 (5 5/8 × 7 1/8 in.)

Location: South Square Room

Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by gift to Joseph Coolidge; by descent to Ellen Coolidge Dwight; by gift to Martha Jefferson Trist Burke; by descent to Ellen Coolidge Burke Eddy; by descent to James Eddy; by purchase to Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1963

Accession Number: 1963-19-2

Historical Notes: According to family tradition, Jefferson presented this engraving to his grandson-in-law Joseph Coolidge on the occasion of his marriage to Ellen Randolph in 1825. The image shows Voltaire having lunch at his summer home in Ferney, France. Jefferson, a great admirer of Voltaire's writing, returned from France with this print and Jean-Antoine Houdon's bust of the writer. The frame for this work has traditionally been attributed to the Monticello slave cabinetmaker John Hemmings.^[1]

- Text from Stein, Worlds, 177