Thomas Jefferson and François Cointereaux, Professor of Rural Architecture in Revolutionary Paris

Little is known about the contacts Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Minister to the Court of Louis XVI between 1784 and 1789 and future President of the United States, had with French architects during his residence in Paris, except those with Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721–1820), who collaborated with him on the design of the Capitol of Virginia in Richmond from 1785. We know, however, that, at the end of his stay in France, Jefferson was in close touch with the French architect and agriculturalist François Cointereaux (1740–1830), as is proven by several unpublished letters written by each of them.