Papers of John Adams, volume 20
st.1790.
The Corporation of this City have applied to the President of the
United States to permit Colo. John Trumbull take his
Portrait to be 396 placed in the City Hall, to which the President has
consented & Mr. Trumbull has suggested to me that as the
Portrait will be large the Room in the Hall in which those of the King and Queen of
France are placed will be most eligible to perform the Painting in & that he will
take Care that no Possible Injury or Inconvenience shall be occasioned by this
Indulgence to him.
The whole of the Hall being devoted to the Use of Congress, I take the Liberty of thus Addressing You Sir, as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the Subject & of soliciting your Permission, under a Persuasion that your respective Assent will be sufficient, without troubling the Senate or House of Representatives.1
I pray Your Answer on this Subject, & have the Honor to be with
great Respect / Sir / Your Obedt. & very / Hble Servt.
d:Varick
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Honble. John
Adams Esqr. / Vice President / of the United States.”
New York mayor Richard Varick (1753–1831), former secretary to
George Washington, guided the decoration of Federal Hall. JA and his
congressional peers sat near copies of two full-length portraits, Antoine François
Callet’s “Louis XVI in Coronation Robes” and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun’s “Marie
Antoinette in Ceremonial Dress.” The city council recruited Col. John Trumbull to
produce additional artwork. For Trumbull’s portrait of Washington, see Descriptive List of Illustrations,
No. 7, above (
ANB
; Washington, Papers, Presidential
Series
, 6:103; T. Lawrence Larkin, “A ‘Gift’ Strategically Solicited
and Magnanimously Conferred: The American Congress, the French Monarchy, and the State
Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette,” Winterthur
Portfolio, 44:31, 49, 53–54 [Spring 2010]).