Show truler TrUl Mr OT TT T the painter of JOHA J 11 m U U bals americas epic by ELMO SCOTT WATSON FHE HE sharp tone of the teachers voice startled the boy out of this i his reverie hastily he scuffled through the pages of his arithmetic book uneasy in his guilty knowledge of those four p problems problems he worked yet but hed been so interested in looking at the picture on the wall that hed forgotten all about the necessity for finding out how many apples mary had after john had given her three and susan had given her six and she ahad biad given four to her brother last summer at the fourth i of july celebration in center iville he had heard congress man kanj J bascom parker those patriots of 76 the fa athers of the republic who signed the declaration of in dependence here before bhim him was a picture of a gro group U p of men who must be the very fathers whom the hon J bascom had mentioned for ahe he could see plainly the title lunder the picture signing ithe the declaration of independence by john trumbull and ever afterwards even i when he had grown to manhood mention of signing the declaration of independence brought back to the boy a recollection of a day in school when he had sat gazing at a picture on the w wall all instead of working his arithmetic problems multiply that incident by a hundred or a thousand and you have a composite of the average americans deans idea of what took place in independence hall in philadelphia on july 4 1776 the birthday of our nation he may never have against the british in rhode island when it proved unsuccessful trumbull returned to boston resolved to give up his career as a soldier permanently and devote his life to painting in may 1780 he sailed for paris whore where he called on benjamin franklin and told him of his desire to study under the great benjamin west in london arn armed aed with a letter of introduction he went to london and west put him to work when major andre the british adjutant general in america was caught and hanged banged the young painter who had been an american adjutant general seemed deemed to the british to be the logical man to be used for reprisal trumbull might well have pleaded that there was little similarity between his case and andres that lie he was in london only as a painter and that he was there by permission of lord germain the british foreign minister instead the truculent young yankee boasted that he had been aide to that arch rebel george washington and that he was proud of it confined in tuthill bridewell trumbull may have had some uneasy moments as to what his fate would be but if he did have them he gave no sign and calmly went on with his painting meanwhile his tory friends west and copley were working in his interests and ta N v vill 4 the battle of bunker hill been to washington and seen the original painting that huge canvas on the wall of the rotunda under the dome of the capitol but he has seen reproductions of it innumerable times and he owes most of his knowledge of this as well as other significant events in the war of the revolution to the genius of john trumbull the painter who was par excellence the painter of americas epic for it was his brush which depicted with almost photographic accuracy of detail such historic scenes as the battle of bunker hill the death of montgomery at quebec washington at the battle of princeton the surrender of burgoyne at saratoga and the final triumph in the struggle for liberty the surrender of cornwallis at yorktown son of brother jonathan born june 6 1756 he was the son of jonathan trumbull governor of connecticut during the revolution ol and trusted adviser of washington whose name for his good friend brother jonathan became the symbol for the united states and continued to be that even after the now familiar uncle sam came into general use at an early age the i junior unior trumbull showed a taste for drawing and while he was a student at harvard college his sk skill 11 at painting won the approval of the distinguished artist john singleton copley after his graduation from harvard trumbull became a school teacher but at the outbreak of the revolution he immediately entered the patriot army he became adjutant of a connecticut regiment stationed at roxbury y and from there had a distant view of the battle of bunker hill on june 17 when washington arrived in cambridge to take command of the continental army trumbull learned that he wished an accurate drawing of the ene mys position so at the risk of his life he crept close to british lines and made sketches which pleased washington so much that he appointed the young connecticut yankee his second aide de camp trumbull next attracted the attention of general gates and when gates went to ticonderoga to assume command of the northern department trumbull went along is s his adjutant general with the rank of colonel in 1778 he accompanied general sullivan as a a volunteer on his expedition after seven months succeeded in gaming gaining his release trumbull returned to america immediately but when hostilities ended he went back to london again to work under west with the spell of his count rys victory still fresh upon him he conceived the idea of commemorating the principal events of the revolution in a series of large paintings his first was the picture of one he had seen even though it was from a distance the battle of bunker hill the great sir joshua reynolds visiting bests studio saw this picture and believing it to be bests work praised him for it a high compliment to the young american with jefferson in paris thomas jefferson american minister to france also saw this painting when he be visited london and immediately recognized the genius of his compatriot he invited trumbull to come to paris as his guest and introduced him J 7 41 A wa A 13 V vvs 47 4 q signing nin the declaration of independence painted in A few months later the painter went back to paris and added jeff jeffersons dersons er sons then the french revolution broke to put an end to trumbulls Trum bulls work in paris in october 1789 both he and jefferson returned to america arriving in new york trumbull found that the constitution had been adopted and washington elected president here the portraits of richard henry lee francis lewis george clinton lewis morris and roger sherman were soon added to trum bulls canvas the next spring the artist went to philadelphia where he spent three months adding more portraits during the fall of 1790 trumbull was in boston and new hampshire painting the portraits of john hancock samuel adams robert treat paine josiah bartlett and on subsequent visits to charleston S C philadelphia new york and boston added others secretary to john jay the end of trumbulls Trum bulls great project was almost in sight when political troubles at home and war abroad turned his interest and the interest of his friends from the arts to these more pressing problems in 1794 trumbull was appointed secretary to john jay and accompanied him to england to aid in the negotiations which resulted in the famous jays treaty bior for the h e next decade he was not a painter p ainger but an american agent in in europe part of the time as a commissioner carrying out the stipulations of that treaty lie he was in paris in 1797 on his way back from stuttgart where he had had an engraving made from his picture of the battle of bunker hill incidentally this picture played an unexpected role in getting its painter p ainger out of a dangerous situation placed on the suspect list by Robes pierres agents trumbull was not allowed to leave france pinckney the american minister could do nothing for him in fact he told trumbull there was a good chance that both of them might soon find themselves in the temple prison and on the way to the guillotine then trumbull appealed to his old friend louis david the french painter now a trusted ally of who learned that he had his bunker hill picture with him the picture is worth many passports declared david and he led the american to the police prefecture with the painting which is a small one under his arm exhibiting it to the chief of police david told him that his american friend had been at that battle he is as good a revolutionist as any of us he declared whereupon trumbull was allowed to depart in peace returning to america at the close of the war of 1812 trumbull 2 M 0 A 5 I 1 ago gr 0 W 2 1 I il 4 L X A the surrender of lord cornwallis to some of the leading french painters and sculptors for some time trumbull had been planning to paint the most important scene in the history of the revolution the signing of the declaration of independence there in the home of its author and aided by that authors suggestions he made the first sketches of the picture returning turning Ke to london trumbull arranged the composition so that he could add the portraits of the signers as the opportunity port unity offered john adams was just leaving his post as ambassador bas to the court of st james and his was the first portrait now nov sixty years of age found that the burning of the capitol was to give him the opportunity of bringing to a successful conclusion one of the dreams of his youth colo trumbull expects that as the legislature are with liberality rebuilding the public edifices they will proceed in the same spirit to their decoration wrote jefferson to james monroe secretary of state in matisons Madi sons cabinet if sa so his paintings should certainly be their first object they will be monuments of the taste talents of our country as well as of the scenes which gave it its place among nations stirred by the eloquence of john randolph of roanoke congress authorized the president to employ trumbull to paint at a cost of each the four pictures which now adorn the walls of the rotunda of the capitol A difficult task accepting this commission meant the task of enlarging his original small paintings to canvases 12 by 18 feet with life sized figures on a wall feet high so it was with some misgivings that trumbull set to work first on his masterpiece ter piece the signing he kept in close touch with jefferson by cor while doing it and on october 23 1818 he wrote to the sage of monticello 1 I have the tha satisfaction to acquaint you that my painting of the declaration oi of independence is finished as far as it can be until I 1 see it in its place at the capitol and with permission of the president is now publicly exhibiting in this city it has excited some attention that last is a modest understatement for when he had engravings grav ings made from the painting people bought them eagerly even though they cost 20 each a large sum in those days jefferson ordered two and in a letter accompanying them trumbull wrote it is delightful to me that after the lapse of so many years this work which I 1 meditated which you assisted me to arrange john trumbull at chaillot in 1786 is at last completed rarely does it occur that two individuals advanced as we then were on the road of life jefferson was then forty three and trumbull thirty remain to see the completion of a favorite project at the end of 37 years the event was great in its consequences beyond all others in human history the actors in it were men who not only by this act but by the consistent undeviating patriotism of their subsequent conduct deserve to live liva in the grateful memory of mankind to the end of time he returned to new york and completed the other three paintings athe the surrender of gen burgoyne the surrender oi of lord cornwallis and resignation by gen washington of his commission to congress in 1824 trumbull tl then ien seventy years old journeyed to washington to superintend the installation of his pictures in the capitol his great work was finished but his eventful career was far from ended next lie he began a new series of paintings but illness and poverty interfered with their completion a and nd saddened his last years finally in 1831 he arranged with with yale college to give that institution his unsold paintings in exchange for an annuity of 1000 1000 for the remainder of his life which ended on november 10 1843 that is why the yale art gallery is today one of americas greatest patriotic shrines on its walls hangs such paintings as the battle of bunker hill th the e death of general montgomery at quebec the battle of trenton the battle of princeton and the small originals of tho the paintings which adorn the rotunda of the capitol in washington beneath the building lies the dust of the genius who created thern them the connecticut yankee john trumbull 0 western newspaper union |