JOHN TRUMBULL youngest
child of first Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, John was born in
Lebanon, Connecticut on June 6, 1756 and died in New York City on
November 10, 1843.He was the most rebellious toward his Puritan father.He entered Harvard at the age of 16 and graduated the following
year, 1773.Over the
objection of his father, John studied art abroad in London from 1783 to
1785 under Benjamin West. Although
Governor Trumbull did not wish to see his son pursue a career in art, he
never stopped showing affections to his children and constantly wrote to
his son while he was away.When
he wrote John in 1785 that his health may be failing, his son returned
home to be with his father prior to his death. John
Trumbull became one of our nation's most noteworthy early American
artists, known for his historical scenes of the American Revolution.One
of these,The Battle of
Bunker's Hill(1786,
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut) composed of many
figures in close combat, is organized along a sweeping diagonal; the
dramatic contrasts of light and shadow culminate in the highlighted
soldier dying in the arms of a comrade.The Declaration of Independence (1794, Yale University Art
Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut), is one of his most notableworks.However, it is an example of the rather dry and mechanically
executed work of his later career.
John Trumbull was an American painter
whose works record the people and events connected with the nation's
founding.He
was among the first educated, native-born Americans to dedicate
themselves to painting.Hoping
to en-noble art through is pictorial documentation of the American
Revolution, Trumbull took part in the war as an aide-de-camp to George
Washington and personally knew the patriots and leaders of the period.
Trumbull's hopes of becoming his nation's official history
painter were frustrated until 1817, when Congress commissioned him to
paint four scenes from the war for the Rotunda of the Capitol.Unfortunately his talents were no longer equal to the task.
In 1817 he was appointed director of the American Academy of the
Fine Arts in New York City from which he retired in 1836.In 1831, Trumbull gave his art collection to Yale University.
Forgotten Founders Historic Documents and Coins of Freedom - By Stanley
L. Klos - Last Exhbit at the 2008 GOP Convention:
http://www.pinellasrepublican.org/
Forgotten Founders Historic Documents and Coins of Freedom - By Stanley
L. Klos
Uncommon Sense: President Obama and
US China Trade 1784-2009
The United Colonies 1st
government began in a Philadelphia Tavern
and the United States 1st federal government ended in a
NYC Tavern!
The Founders convened the government in 11 different capitol buildings and
experienced 15 years of challenges that
included war,
hyper-inflation, a failed
constitution, judicial corruption, armed citizen and U.S. Army rebellions.
