Show JOHN 5 arl U M the americas painter of epic dy by E ELMO SCOTT WATSON THE ephe sharp tone of tho the teachers voice startled the boy 1 JL out of his reverie hastily ho he scuffled through the pages of his arithmetic book uneasy in his guilty knowledge of those four problems he worked yet but hold hed been so interested in looking at the ilia picture on the wall that hod hed forgotten all about tho the necessity for finding out how many apples mary had nf after ter john had given her three and susan had given her six and she had given four to philip last summer at the fourth Fourt of july celebration in center ville villa ho he had hoard heard congressman J bascom parker those patriots of 17 70 of the fathers of the republic who signed planed the declaration of independence here before him was a picture of a group of men who must be the ver very y fathers whom the hon J bascom had mentioned for he could see plainly the title under the picture signing the declaration of independence 01 by john trumbull and ever afterwards even 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 wall instead of working his arithmetic problems multiply that incident by a hundred or a thousand and you have a composite of the average americans idea of what took place in independence hall in philadelphia on july 4 1776 1770 tho the birthday of our nation ho 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 afo to painting in may 1780 lie he soiled sailed tor for paris where chero ho he colled called on benjamin franklin ond and told him of ills his desire to study under the great benjamin west in london armed with a letter of introduction he went to london and west put him to work when major andre tho the british adjutant general in america was caught and hanged tho the young painter who had find been an american adjutant general seemed to the british to bo be the logical man to bo be used for reprisal trumbull might well have pleaded that thero there was little similarity between his case and andros androls that ho he was in london only as a painter and that he was there by permission of lord germain tho the british foreign minister instead tile tho truculent young yankee boasted that ho he had been aide to that arch rebel georgo george washington and that ho he was proud of it confined in tuthill Bri bridewell dowell trumbull may have had some uneasy moments as to what his fate would bo be but it if ho he did have them lie he kave gave no sign and calmly went on with his painting meanwhile his tory friends west and copley were working in his interests and V V oki N ua mi 1 IS r 4 the battle of bunker been to washington and seen the original painting that huge canvas on the wall of the rotunda under the domo dome of the capitol but he has seen reproductions of it innumerable times and he owes most of ills his knowledge of this as well as other significant events in the war of the revolution to the genius of john trumbull Trum buU tile the painter who was par excellence the pointer painter of americas epic for it was his brush which depicted with almost photographic accuracy of detail such historic scenes as the bottle battle of bunker hill the death of montgomery at quebec washington hington at the brittle battle of princeton the surrender of burgoyne Burgoy nc at saratoga and the final in the struggle for liberty the surrender of cornwallis lit at yorktown son ot of brother jonathan borri born june 6 0 1756 1750 he was the son of jonath A 4 trumbull governor of connecticut during the revolution ol and trusted adviser of washington whose name for his good friend brother Jonat jonathan hrin 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 junior trumbull showed a taste for drawing and while he was a student at harvard college his skill 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 ile he became adjutant of a connecticut regiment stationed at roxbury and from froin 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 one 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 be appointed the young connecticut yankee his second aide de camp trumbull next attracted the attention ter 1 of general gates gaten and dhen gales went to ticonderoga I 1 to 0 o assume assume command of the north i ern department trumbull went 1 along as lits his adjutant general with the rank of colonel in 1778 he accompanied general sullivan as S a volunteer olun on hl expedition H 1 l after seven months suc succeeded ceede d in 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 lie 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 pi 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 lie ho visited london and immediately recognized the genius of his compatriot he invited trumbull to come to paris as his guest and introduced him tion placed on the suspect list by Robes pierres agents trumbull was not allowed to leave france pinckney the american minister could do nothing for fo r him in fact he told trumbull there was a good chance ithac 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 HUI hill picture with him the picture is worth many passports declared david and lie ho led the american to the police prefecture with the painting which Is ig a small one under his arm exhibiting it to the chief of police david told him that his american friend had been nt at that battle he is as good a revolutionist as any of us he declared whereupon trumbull was wag allowed to depart in pence peace returning to america at the close of the war of 1812 trumbull 3 re Y t q X v 11 41 aw X I 1 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 ninde made the first sketches of the picture returning to london trumbull arranged the composition so that he could add the portraits or of fhe signers as the opportunity port unity offered john adams was just leaving ills his post as ambassador bas to the court of 0 st james and his was was the first portrait au ai 77 T ig ax A an 9 50 16 A si A vs av w 1 I signing the declaration of independence painted in A few months later the pointer painter went back to paris and added jo jeffersons fferson os then tho french revolution broke to put on an end to trumbulls Trum bulla bulls work in paris parag in october 1789 both lie he and jefferson returned to america arriving in now 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 coon added to trum bulls bulla canvas the next spring the artist went to philadelphia where lie spent three months adding more portraits during the fall of 1790 1700 trumbull was in boston and new hampshire painting the portraits of john hancock samuel adams robert treat paine josiah bartlett ond and on subsequent visits to charleston S C Phil philadelphia adelphin vow new york ard ar d boston added others secretary to john jay the end of trumbulls Trum bulls great project was almost in sight when p political 0 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 P hinted secretary to john jay and accompanied him to england to old aid in the negotiations which resulted iri in the famous jays treaty for the next decade lie was not a painter but an american agent in europe part of the time as a commissioner miss loner carrying outtie out the stipulations of that treaty ile he was waa in paris jn 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 out of a dangerous situa now sixty years of age found that the burning of tho the capitol was to give him the opportunity of bringing to a successful conclusion one TA of the dreams of hs 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 so his paintings should certainly lie their first object they will be monuments of the taste talents of our country as well as of u the scenes which gave it its place among nations stirred by the eloquence dlo quence of john randolph of Ron noke congress authorized tho the president to employ trumbull to paint at a cost of each tho the four our pictures which now adorn tho the walls of the rotunda ot of tho the capitol capito to A difficult task accepting this commission meant tho the task of enlarging hs his original small paintings to canvases 12 by 18 13 feet with life sized figures on a wall feet high so it was with some misgivings that trum bulliet buu bull set to work first on his masterpiece ter piece the signing ile he kept in close touch with jefferson by correspondence while doing it and on october 23 1818 he wrote to the sage of monticello 1 I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that my painting of the declaration of independence is finished as far as it can be until I 1 see it in its place at the capitol and with pern isslyn of the president is now publicly exhibiting in this city it has excited somo some attention that last is a modest understatement for when he had engravings grav ings made from the painting poo people P ae 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 tha t after the lapse of so many years this work which I 1 meditated which you assisted me to arran ax range arranga gc iv R john trumbull at chaillot Chall lot in 1786 is at last completed rarely does it occur that two individuals advanced as we then we ie on the road of life jefferson was then forty three and trumbull Trum buU 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 tho aho actors in it were e men who not only by this act but by the consistent undeviating patriotism of their subsequent conduct deserve to live in the grateful memory of mankind to the end of time he returned to new york and completed the other three ings the surrender of gen burgoyne the surrender of lord cornwallis Cornwall ls and resignation by gen washington of his commission Com to congress in 1824 trumbull Trum buU then 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 he began a new series of paintings but illness and poverty interfered with their completion and an d saddened his last years finally in 1831 he arranged with yale college to give that institution his unsold paintings in exchange for an annuity of 1000 for the remainder of his life which ended on november 10 1843 that ischy is why the yale art gallory gallery is today one of americas gre greatest clest patriotic shrines on its walls hangs such paintings as th the C battle 0 of f B bunker hill U 1 01 the death of General montgomery at quebec the battle of trenton the brittle battle of princeton and the small originals of tho the paintings which adorn tho the rotunda of the capitol in washington beneath the building lies the dust of the genius who created them the connecticut yankee john trumbull Trum buU 0 weste rn newspaper union |