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'''John Trumbull''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|r|ʌ|m|b|əl}}; June 6, 1756{{snd}}November 10, 1843) was a Revolutionary War veteran and an American artist of the early independence period, notable for his [[historical painting]]s of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. He has been called '''The Painter of the Revolution'''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnston|first1=Elizabeth Bryant|title=Original Portraits of Washington, including Statues, Monuments and Medals |chapter=John Trumbull|date=1882|page=66|url=https://archive.org/stream/originalportrait00john#page/66/mode/1up|oclc=3303313}}</ref> 

Trumbull's ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'' (1817), one of his four paintings which hang in the [[United States Capitol Rotunda]], was used on the reverse of the commemorative bicentennial [[United States two-dollar bill|two-dollar bill]].

==Early life==
Trumbull was born in [[Lebanon, Connecticut]], in 1756, to [[Jonathan Trumbull]] and Faith (née Robinson) Trumbull. His father served as [[Governor of Connecticut]] from 1769 to 1784. Both sides of his family were descended from early Puritan settlers in the state.

He had two older brothers, [[Joseph Trumbull (commissary general)|Joseph Trumbull]], the first commissary general of the [[Continental Army]] in the Revolutionary War, and [[Jonathan Trumbull Jr.]], who would become the second Speaker of the House of the United States. 

The young Trumbull entered the 1771 junior class at [[Harvard College]] at age fifteen and graduated in 1773. Due to a childhood accident, Trumbull lost use of one eye. This may have influenced his detailed painting style.<ref name=time1956>{{Cite magazine |title=Gentleman John Trumbull |magazine=Time Magazine |date=1956-10-29 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867213,00.html |accessdate=2008-02-17 |postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref>

==Revolutionary War==
As a soldier in the [[American Revolutionary War]], Trumbull rendered a particular service at [[Boston]] by sketching plans of the British and American lines and [[Fortification|works]]<ref>[https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5757356 Sketch of British and American Lines and Fortifications in Boston Area by John Trumbull], 1775.</ref>. He witnessed the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]]. He was appointed second [[Washington's aides-de-camp|''aide-de-camp'' to General George Washington]], and in June 1776, deputy adjutant-general to General [[Horatio Gates]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Trumbull, John (artist)|display=Trumbull, John|volume=27|page=324}}</ref> He resigned from the army in 1777 after a dispute over the dating of his officer commission.

In 1780, with funds depleted, Trumbull turned to art as a profession. He traveled to [[London]], where upon introduction from [[Benjamin Franklin]], Trumbull studied under [[Benjamin West]]. At West's suggestion, Trumbull painted small pictures of the War of Independence and [[Portrait miniature|miniature portraits]]. He painted about 250 in his lifetime.{{sfnp|Trumbull|1841|pp=288–94}}

On September 23, 1780, British agent Major [[John André]] was captured by Continental troops in North America; he was hanged as a spy on October 2, 1780. After news reached Great Britain, outrage flared and Trumbull was arrested, as having been an officer in the Continental Army of similar rank to André.<ref name="EB1911"/> He was imprisoned for seven months in London's [[Tothill Fields Bridewell]].{{sfnp|Jaffe|1975|p=50}}<ref>{{cite web|last1=Heleniak|first1=Kathryn Moore|title=Benjamin West and John Trumbull|url=http://www.library.fordham.edu/trumbull/benjamin.html|publisher=[[Fordham University]]|access-date=2017-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320033737/http://www.library.fordham.edu/trumbull/benjamin.html|archive-date=2016-03-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After being released, Trumbull returned to the United States in a voyage that lasted six months, ending late January 1782. He then joined his brother David in supplying the [[New Windsor Cantonment|army stationed]] at [[New Windsor, New York]] during the winter of 1782–83.{{sfnp|Jaffe|1975|pp=53–54}}{{sfnp|Trumbull|1841|p=88}}

==Postwar years==
[[File:John Trumbull Gilbert Stuart 1818.jpeg|thumb|right|upright|''John Trumbull'', painted by [[Gilbert Stuart]], 1818]]

In 1784, following Britain's recognition of the United States independence, Trumbull returned to London for painting study under West. His first major work, ''The Deputation from the Senate Presenting to Cincinnatus the Command of the Roman Armies'', was accepted and displayed by the [[Royal Academy of Arts]] in that year. In this work, Trumbull had painted [[Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus]] in the likeness of George Washington. The painting is now unlocated.{{sfnp|Jaffe|1975|p=60}} While working in his studio, Trumbull painted ''Battle of Bunker Hill'' and ''Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec.'' Both works are now in the [[Yale University Art Gallery]].

In July 1786, Trumbull went to [[Paris]], where he made portrait sketches of French officers for the ''[[Surrender of Lord Cornwallis]].'' With the assistance of [[Thomas Jefferson]], serving there as the [[United States Ambassador to France|American minister to France]], Trumbull began the early composition of the ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=William Howard |title=The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson |date=2000 |isbn=978-0-30008-261-6 |pages=90–2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUYTAOwDMP8C&pg=PA90}}</ref>{{sfnp|Trumbull|1841|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jPI1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA95 95–6]}}<ref name="EB1911"/> Over the next 5 years Trumbull painted small portraits of signers, which he would later use to piece together the larger painting. If the signer was deceased, a previous portrait would be copied, as was the case with [[Arthur Middleton]], whose head position stands out in the painting. While visiting with each signer or their family, Trumbull, always looking for funding, used the occasion to sell subscriptions to engravings that would be produced from his paintings of the American Revolution.{{sfnp|Trumbull|1841|pp=288–94}}

While in Paris, Trumbull is credited with having introduced Jefferson to the [[Italy|Italian]] painter [[Maria Cosway]]; they became lifelong intimate friends. Trumbull's painting of Jefferson, commissioned by Cosway, became widely known due to a later engraving of it by [[Asher Brown Durand]], which was reproduced.

Trumbull's ''Declaration of Independence'' painting was purchased by the [[United States Congress]], along with his ''[[Surrender of General Burgoyne]]'', ''Surrender of Lord Cornwallis'', and ''[[General George Washington Resigning His Commission]]'', all related to the Revolution.  All now hang in [[United States Capitol rotunda|rotunda]] of the [[United States Capitol]]. Congress reportedly authorized only funds sufficient to purchase these four paintings.<!-- as compared to what? or rather than? -->

Trumbull completed several other paintings related to the Revolution: 
*''[[The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775|Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill]]'' (one version is held by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts); 
*''[[The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775|Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec]]''; 
*''[[The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776|Capture of the Hessians at Trenton]]''; 
*''[[The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777|Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton]]'';
*''[[Washington at Verplanck's Point]]'', a 1790 gift to Martha Washington;
*''[[George Washington (John Trumbull, 1790)|George Washington]]'', commissioned by the City of New York in 1790; and 
*''[[The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789]]''. This was once owned by the [[Boston Athenaeum]] and  is now held by the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Middle years==
[[File:General George Washington at Trenton by John Trumbull.jpeg|thumb|upright|''[[General George Washington at Trenton]]'', oil on canvas, 1792. [[Yale University Art Gallery]].]]
Trumbull encountered hard times in which he was failing to sell his paintings individually; in 1831 he sold a series of 28&nbsp;paintings and 60&nbsp;miniature portraits to [[Yale University]] for an [[Annuity (US financial products)|annuity]] of $1,000. After many years of trying to create income from his painting, he had finally found a way to sustain himself from his art.{{sfnp|Trumbull|1841|pp=288–94}} This is by far the largest single collection of his works. The collection was originally housed in a [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]] art gallery designed by Trumbull on Yale's [[Old Campus]], along with portraits by other artists.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yale University Art Gallery: Architecture|url=http://artgallery.yale.edu/about/architecture}} Trumbull Gallery (1832)</ref>

His portraits also include full lengths of [[George Washington (Trumbull, 1790, New York City Hall)|General Washington]] (1790) and [[George Clinton (vice president)|George Clinton]] (1791), now held in [[New York City Hall]].<ref name="EB1911"/> New York also bought his full-length paintings of [[Alexander Hamilton]] (1805, the source of the face on the [[United States ten-dollar bill|$10&nbsp;bill]]<ref>{{cite news | last=Dunlap | first=David W. | title=In New York, Taking Years Off the Old, Famous Faces Adorning City Hall | newspaper=The New York Times | date=2006-12-06 | accessdate=2007-01-07 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/nyregion/06portraits.html?ref=nyregion }}</ref>) and [[John Jay]]. In 1791 Trumbull was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter T|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterT.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=August 7, 2014}}</ref>

He painted portraits of [[John Adams]] (1797), Jonathan Trumbull, and [[Rufus King]] (1800); [[Timothy Dwight IV|Timothy Dwight]] and [[Stephen Van Rensselaer III|Stephen Van Rensselaer]] (both at Yale), [[Alexander Hamilton]] (one in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] and one in the [[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]], both taken from [[Alexander Hamilton (Ceracchi)|Ceracchi's bust]]), a self-portrait (1833), a full-length of Washington, held at [[Charleston, South Carolina]]; a full-length of Washington in uniform, ''[[General George Washington at Trenton]]'', (1792, at Yale); and portraits of President and [[Martha Washington|Mrs. Washington]] (1794), in the [[National Museum of American History]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

Trumbull was painted by [[Gilbert Stuart]] and many others.

In 1794 Trumbull acted as secretary to [[John Jay]] in London during the negotiation of the treaty with Great Britain, which largely settled the boundary with Canada and began cotton export.<!-- The US had been exporting cotton before this, surely --> In 1796 he was appointed by the commissioners sent by the two countries as the fifth member of a commission charged with carrying out the seventh article of the [[Jay Treaty]],<ref name="EB1911"/> which mediated claims by American and British merchants and the opposing government stemming from actions which occurred during the war. Shortly after the end of Trumbull's service on this commission, he traveled to Stuttgart to pick up the completed engraving of the ''Battle of Bunker's Hill''. On the return trip he passed through Paris and carried the first dispatch from the [[XYZ Affair]] out of France.{{sfnp|Jaffe|1975|pp=177–82}}

==Later years==

[[File:John Trumbull James Frothingham.jpg|thumb|right|upright|John Trumbull, painted by [[James Frothingham]]]]Trumbull was appointed president of the [[American Academy of the Fine Arts]] in New York City, serving for twenty years, from 1816 to 1836.{{sfnp|Jaffe|1975|pp=264–75}} Emphasizing classical traditions, Trumbull did not get along with the students. At the same time, his painting skills declined. In 1825 many of the students withdrew, founding the [[National Academy of Design]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (Vol 3) |last=Dunlap |first=William |year=1918 |pages=52–57 |publisher =C. E. Goodspeed & Co. |url=https://books.google.com/?id=0FJLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA52|accessdate=2008-02-17}}</ref> Unable to accommodate to changing tastes, the American Academy later closed in 1839 after a second fire destroyed its collections.

Trumbull wrote his autobiography, which he published in 1841. He died in New York City at the age of 87 on November 10, 1843.

==Legacy and honors==
[[File:US $2 reverse.jpg|right|thumb|Reverse of [[U.S. two-dollar bill]], featuring Trumbull's ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'']]
[[File:John Trumbull-6c.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|Trumbull commemorative postage stamp, 1968]]

*Trumbull was originally interred (along with his wife) beneath the Art Gallery at [[Yale University]], which he had designed. In 1867, the collection of his works were moved to the newly built [[Street Hall]]. His and his wife's remains were reinterred on those grounds.<ref>[http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/01_03/popup/landmarks/7.html Trumbull Gallery at Yale] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070305090705/http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/01_03/popup/landmarks/7.html |date=2007-03-05 }}</ref> The Trumbull Gallery was later razed.
*1965, the [[John Trumbull Birthplace]] in Lebanon, Connecticut, was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]].
*1968, a John Trumbull commemorative [[postage stamp]] was printed.

==Paintings==
* ''[[The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775]]''
* ''[[The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775]]''
* ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]''
* ''[[The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776]]''
* ''[[The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777]]''
* [[Surrender of General Burgoyne|''The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga'']]
* [[Surrender of Lord Cornwallis|''The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown'']]
* ''[[General George Washington Resigning His Commission]]''
* Portraits of [[George Washington]] and [[John Adams]]
* ''The Death of Aemilius Paullus at the Battle of Cannae''
* ''[[The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar]]''
* Self-portrait
* Portrait of [[Josiah Bartlett]]

===Historic events===
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:The death of general warren at the battle of bunker hill.jpg|''[[The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775]]'' (event 1775, painted 1786)
File:The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec December 31 1775.jpeg|''[[The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775]]'' (event 1775, painted 1786)
File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg|''The [[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'' (event 1776, painted 1819)
File:The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton December 26 1776.jpeg|''[[The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776]]'' (event 1776, painted 1786–1828)
File:The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton January 3 1777.jpeg|''[[The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777]]'' (event 1777, {{circa|1787}}–{{circa|1831}})
File:Surrender of General Burgoyne.jpg|''[[Surrender of General Burgoyne]]'' (event 1777, painted 1821)
File:Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.jpg|''[[Surrender of Lord Cornwallis]]'' (event 1781, painted 1820)
File:General George Washington Resigning his Commission.jpg|''[[General George Washington Resigning His Commission]]'' (event 1783, painted 1824)
File:The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar.jpg|''[[The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar]]'' (1789)
</gallery>

===Portraits===
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:Self Portrait John Trumbull 1777.jpeg|''Self-portrait'', 1777
File:George Washington MET DT2823.jpg|''[[George Washington (Trumbull)|George Washington]]'', 1780
File:Washington at Verplanck's Point by John Trumbull.jpg|''[[Washington at Verplanck's Point]]'', 1790
File:General George Washington at Trenton by John Trumbull.jpeg|''[[General George Washington at Trenton]]'', 1792
File:George Clinton by John Trumbull 1791.jpg|''[[George Clinton (vice president)|George Clinton]]'', 1791
File:John Trumbull, Lady in White.jpg|''Lady in White''
File:Self Portrait by John Trumbull circa 1802.jpeg|''Self-portrait'', {{circa|1802}}
File:Sarah Trumbull with a Spaniel by John Trumbull.jpeg|Mrs Sarah Trumbull with a spaniel 1802
File:Alexander_Hamilton.jpg|''[[Alexander Hamilton (Trumbull)|Alexander Hamilton]]'', 1792
File:Hamilton Trumbull 1792.jpg|''[[Alexander Hamilton (Trumbull)|Alexander Hamilton]]'', 1792
File:Hamilton Trumbull - 1805.jpg|''Alexander Hamilton'', 1805
File:Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull 1832.jpeg|''Alexander Hamilton'', 1832
</gallery>

===Miniature portraits/sketches===
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="4">
File:Israel Putnam by Trumbull - Project Gutenberg eText 17049.png|''[[Israel Putnam]]'', 1790
File:Richard butler.jpg|''[[Richard Butler (general)]]'', 1790
File:Charles Cotesworth Pinckney by John Trumbull.jpg|''[[Charles Cotesworth Pinckney]]'', 1791
File:George Wythe by John Trumbull.jpg|''[[George Wythe]]'', 1791
</gallery>


===John Trumbull, American Painter, by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica"

'''John Trumbull,''' (born June 6, 1756, Lebanon, Connecticut, U.S.—died November 10, 1843, New York, New York), American painter, architect, and author, whose paintings of major episodes in the American Revolution form a unique record of that conflict’s events and participants.

Trumbull was the son of the Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull (a first cousin to the poet John Trumbull). A boyhood injury to his left eye made him virtually monocular. After graduating from Harvard College in 1773, he worked as a teacher. During the American Revolution he served as an aide to General George Washington and achieved the rank of colonel.

In 1780 Trumbull went to London via France, but, in reprisal for the hanging of the British agent Major John André by the Americans, he was imprisoned there. Once released, he returned home but subsequently went back to London by 1784 to study with the painter Benjamin West.

At the suggestion of West and with the encouragement of Thomas Jefferson, Trumbull about 1784 began the celebrated series of historical paintings and engravings that he was to work on sporadically for the remainder of his life. From 1789 he was in the United States, but he returned to London in 1794 as secretary to John Jay. He remained there for 10 years as a commissioner for the implementation of the Jay Treaty. During this period, in 1800, he married Sarah Hope Harvey, an English amateur painter. Moving back and forth between England and the United States, in 1808 he attempted portrait painting in London but met with little success. From 1815 to 1837 he maintained a rather unsuccessful studio in New York City.

In 1817 Trumbull was commissioned by the U.S. Congress to paint four large pictures in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, D.C.: General George Washington Resigning His Commission, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, Surrender of General Burgoyne, and, best known of all, Declaration of Independence. This series, which he completed in 1824, was based on the small and superior originals of these scenes that he had painted in the 1780s and ’90s. In 1831 Benjamin Silliman, a professor at Yale, established the Trumbull Gallery at Yale, the first art gallery at an educational institution in America. Trumbull gave his best works to this gallery in exchange for an annuity.

==References==
* {{cite book|last=Trumbull | first=John | title=Autobiography, Reminiscences and Letters of John Trumbull from 1756 to 1841 | year=1841 | publisher=Wiley and Putnam | location=New York |isbn= | url=https://books.google.com/?id=jPI1AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover |ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|last=Weir | first=J. F. | title=John Trumbull, A Brief Sketch of His Life, to which is added a Catalogue of his Works | year=1901 | location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/?id=V5xGAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage|accessdate=2008-02-16 | publisher=C. Scribner's sons}}
* {{cite journal|last=Durand | first=John | title=John Trumbull | journal=American Art Review | volume=ii | issue=2 | pages=181–191 | location=Boston | year=1881 }}
* {{cite book|last=Murray | first=P. & L. | year=1996 | title=Dictionary of Art and Artists | publisher=Penguin Books | isbn=0-14-051300-0 }}
* {{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Helen A.|title=John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter|year=1983|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT|isbn=978-0894670244}}
* {{cite book|last=Jaffe|first=Irma B.|title=John Trumbull, Patriot-Artist of the American Revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/johntrumbullpatr0000jaff|url-access=registration|year=1975|publisher=New York Graphic Society|location=Boston, MA|isbn=9780821204597|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sizer|first1=Theodore|author-link=Theodore Sizer (art historian)|title=The Works of Colonel John Trumbull, Artist of the American Revolution|date=1950|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdIYAAAAYAAJ|ref=harv}}

==External links==
{{commons|John Trumbull|John Trumbull}}
*[http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0391.htm The Winterthur Library] Overview of an archival collection on John Trumbull.
*[http://www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=trumbull%2C+john&role=&nation=&prev_page=1&subjectid=500016000 Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies.] ULAN Full Record Display for John Trumbull. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/56268/rec/16 Art and the empire city: New York, 1825–1861], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Trumbull (see index)
*[http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/trumbull/ Guide to the John Trumbull Papers, 1775–1842]
*Find a Grave|7413829

[[category:Foote Family Papers]]
[[category:American Art]]
[[category:History Painting]]
[[Category:United States Painters]]
[[Category:Continental Army soldiers]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:People of Connecticut in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:American neoclassical painters]]
[[Category:American portrait painters]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:American history painters]]
[[Category:Aides-de-camp of George Washington]]