In Thomas Jefferson found himself in France as our first ambassador. While he was there he fell in love. Jefferson is known primarily as a founding father and statesman, but in his day, men of letters were often schooled in the principles of building design. As a prominent landowner, he would have directed the construction of his house and farm buildings, while as a civic leader, he would have done so for important public buildings as well.
The 18th-century excavation of Pompeii had led to the publishing of some wonderfully illustrated books that became widely available in print for just such a time as his. The bibliophile Jefferson found in France a wealth of material to inspire him, but how could he adequately convey his designs to builders an ocean away?
The builders in Virginia were skilled in working with native materials such as clay-fired brick and carved wood, often working with minimal plans as they replicated the Georgian architecture brought from England. Architectural model-making was already a high art in France, so Jefferson commissioned Jean-Pierre Fouquet, a master modeler, to construct a where 1 inch equals 5 feet detailed model in plaster of Paris.
But today it shows one major change that Jefferson made: the fluted Corinthian columns of the original have been replaced with simpler Ionic columns.
Perhaps this was a kindness to the artisans who had to build it. Perhaps it was a matter of taste. At some point in the s, Jefferson sketched a design concept for a future Virginia Capitol that featured the Ionic order. Jefferson himself would not return to Virginia from France until , meaning his most prominent civic design was built entirely without his direct supervision.
