John Trumbull

John Trumbull was born on June 6, 1756, in Lebanon, Connecticut, the son of the colonial governor Jonathan Trumbull Sr. He graduated from Harvard College at fifteen and briefly served as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington during the early months of the Revolutionary War before resigning his commission to pursue painting full-time. He studied in London under Benjamin West from 1780, and during a second stay in London from 1784 he began his celebrated series of small history paintings documenting the American Revolution.\n\nTrumbull's meticulous Revolutionary War canvases — depicting the Declaration of Independence, the surrender at Saratoga, the surrender at Yorktown, and the death of General Mercer at Princeton — brought together accurate portraits of the principal participants, many of whom sat for him personally. He knew Thomas Jefferson in Paris and painted what became the definitive portrait of Jefferson used for the nickel. His largest works were installed in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., in 1826, cementing his role as the visual chronicler of the founding era.\n\nIn later life Trumbull donated his collection and unsold paintings to Yale College in exchange for an annuity, and the Trumbull Gallery (opened 1832) became one of the first college art museums in the United States. He died in New York on November 10, 1843, and was buried beneath the gallery that bore his name.