Thomas Jefferson's main plantation, Monticello (from the Italian for "little mountain") is pictured here in a painting by Jane Braddick Peticolas. The painting captures Jefferson's vision of an American nation built on agricultural virtue, fused with neoclassical elements. This vision was encapsulated in the construction of Monticello, which Jefferson personally designed in order to incorporate a sense of unity between the home, modeled after French and Italian neoclassical buildings he had seen in Europe, and the gardens, which represented his view of America as a primarily agricultural nation.
