biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1756–1843)
|
| biography:
| Painter, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, USA, the son of Jonathan Trumbull (1710–85). He served intermittently in the Continental Army (1775–7, 1778) but spent most of the years 1777–9 studying art in Boston, and went to London to study with Benjamin West (1780). He was briefly imprisoned in retribution for the hanging of Major Andre as a spy. Released from prison, he went to Amsterdam and painted a full-length portrait of George Washington; its engraved version gave Europeans their first view of the American Revolution's leader. He returned to the USA (1782–3) and then went back to Benjamin West (1783–9). He returned to America (1789–94), was John Jay's private secretary (1793–4), and then returned to England (1794–1804). He established a studio in New York (1804–08), then went back to London (1808–15), and finally settled in New York City (1815). During these years he tended to specialize in portraits that are an authentic, if not especially stylish, record of the age. In 1817 he was commissioned to paint four pictures for the Rotunda of the US Capitol; his ‘Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga’, ‘Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown’, ‘Declaration of Independence’, and ‘Resignation of Washington’ were all completed in 1824. Although not as impressive as some of his other works (including the original smaller versions), these works established him as the artist of the American Revolution - millions of American schoolchildren have seen the Revolution through his eyes. |
|
|
