Show 10 J urla POT A K X U avaid LJ U TT T the americas painter of or epic ic by ELMO SCOTT WATSON athe HE sharp tone of the teachers voice startled th the e boy out of whis JL his reverie hastily he scuffled through the pages of his arithmetic Irith book uneasy in his guilty knowledge of those four problems he worked yet but hed been so inter interested ested in looking at the picture on the wall that hed forgotten all about he necessity for finding out how many apples mary had after ajohn lohn had had given her three and susan had bad given her six and she baad given four to her brother it 1 last summer at the fourth 1 if lf july celebration in center kille he had heard congress ispano Ispa nan nJ J bascom parker those patriots of 76 the fathers hers of the republic who signed the declaration of independence dependence hero here before aim was vas a picture of a group nf jf men who must be the very athers bathers whom the hon J I 1 bascom had mentioned for ze ce could see plainly the title ader ki inder the picture signing lslie he declaration of independence by joh john n trumbull 14 si and ever afterwards even rhen he had grown to ma mane n lt mention of signing the az declaration declaration ecla ration of independence I brought rought back to the boy a keco recollection 4 r e action of a day in school lif lihen hen he had sat gazing at a Ajic picture ture on the wall instead of forking his arithmetic av ans it orris E multiply that incident b by a hun P ared ar red or a thousand and you have if composite of the average ameri ans idea of what took place in independence dependence hall in philadel aia hia on july 4 1776 the birthday our nation ibe he may never have n against the bi british ibish in rhode rhod 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 where he called on benjamin franklin and told him of 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 the british adjutant general in america was caught and hanged the young painter who had been an american adjutant general engral seemed to the british tole to be the logical man to be used for reprisal trumbull might well have pleaded that there ther ewas was little similarity between his case and andres that 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 P ak v lawz st 0 L O paa w i 04 7 1 aft X N I 1 7 all aall I 1 d it ed 00 tell 1 mgt the battle of bunker hill teben to washington and seen the Us ille painting that huge cans As on the wall of the rotunda ider de r t the he I 1 dome 0 of the capitol i it he e has see seen me reproductions of Eff enumerable inumerable times and he owes st of his knowledge of this as II 11 as other significant events in te p war of the revolution to the epius of john trumbull the 11 minter jinter who was par excellence ie epa painter inter of americas epic for it was his brush which de doted with almost photographic VA juracy su racy of detail such historic sift aes nes as the battle of bunker 1 the death of montgomery at bec washington at the battle j J princeton vinceton rin ceton the surrender of to bi oyne goyne at saratoga and the alzo 1 triumph in the struggle for ll 11 doerty the surrender of cornat I 1 s yorktown DOP 7 A W tr ason of brother jonathan tr 10 orn june 6 1756 he was the ot of jonathan trumbull govere f connecticut during the rev ion 1 and trusted adviser of hington agton whose name for his L friend brother jonathan me line the symbol for the united tes es and continued to be that A after the no now familiar cle f e sam came into general sat at an early age the junior bull aull showed a taste lor for ig 9 and while he was a stuat 10 t harvard college his skill ba inting won the approval of fi distingue dist distinguished ingui shed artist J ohn john leton copley ater ter his graduation from har li Trumbull became a school per er but out at the outbreak of the ea elution ution he immediately en AL clithe J the patriot army he be bt adjutant of a connecticut it AV lent ent stationed at roxbury FOO rom om there had a distant view afoo P be eb battle attle of bunker hill on fv 0 17 when washington ar OLN 1 in cambridge to take com eliof of the continental army bull learned that he wished accurate Bc curate drawing of the ene position so at the risk of life e he crept close to british MY and made sketches which bed d washington so much that 04 le pointed the young connetti 00 his second aide de IB es ft a i bull next attracted the at i A mt n 0 of general gates and aly gates went to ticonderoga r apo t e command of the north sefa department Part ment trumbull went 01 af 1 Ks s his adjutant general with ato ank k of colonel in 1778 he acied general sullivan as luntzer teer on his expedition after seven months succeeded in gaining his release trum trumbull bull 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 visited london and immediately recognized the genius of his compatriot he invited trumbull to come to paris as his guest and introduced him V R P j tai I 1 A 0 gg f a I 1 49 ir 41 0 11 X signing the declaration ot of independence painted in A few months later the painter went back to paris and added jeffersons 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 henr henry Y lee francis lewis lew is 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 fau 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 a arts arts to these more 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 for the next decade he was not a painter but an american agent in europe part of the time as a commissioner carrying out the stipulations of that treaty he was in P paris aris in 1797 on his way back from S stuttgart tutt gart 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 situation placed on the suspect list by Robes pierres agents trumbull was not allowed to leave france pinckney the american minister could do bothin nothing g 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 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 OM c t sil k w x WOW 1 5 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 0 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 to london trumbull arranged the composition so that he could add the portraits of the signers as the opportunity port unity offered oil ered john adams was just leaving his post as ambassador bas to the court of st james and his was the first portrait now sixty years of age found that the burning of the capitol was to give him the opportunity of 0 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 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 0 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 tha 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 p painting people bought them eagerly even though th they ey 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 wh ich 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 conduct deserve to live liva in the grateful memory of mankind to the end of time he returned to new york and completed the theother other three paintings the surrender of gen burgoyne the surrender ot of lord cornwallis and resignation by gen washington of his commission to congress in 1824 trumbull then seventy years old 0 id 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 saddened his last years finally in 1831 he ar ranged arranged with yale college to give that institution his unsold paint paintings ings in in exchange for an annuity of 1 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 the death of general montgomery at quebec the battle of trenton the battle of princeton and the small originals of the paintings which adorn adorn the rotunda of the capitol in washington beneath the building lies the dust of the genius who created them the connecticut yankee john trumbull 0 western newspaper union |