John Trumbull

TitleJohn Trumbull

Daten.d.

DimensionsUnframed: 27 × 18 7/8 in. Framed: 32 3/4 × 24 5/8 × 2 3/4 in.

Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Purchase, 1868

Object number1269-P

Label TextThis painting was owned by Lewis P. Clover until it was purchased by the Academy in 1868 .

[need bio of Trumbull; and something about NAD's acquisition--how does he know this is how we got it?]

In his diary William Dunlap recounts being present when Trumbull was sitting for his portrait in Twibill's studio.

To Twibill's to see a paint[ing]. see a good small full length of Trumbull very like. Twibill hinted at the difference between his small pictures & his [i.e. Trumbull's] last. He [Trumbull] attributed it to his leaving painting to study Law when he was appointed Commissioner of Claims. He told Twibill that Stuart could not interest Washington in a conversation when he sat to him, the president not relishing his manners, whereas with him he was at this ease.

Although Dunlap's account is opaque, it clearly reflects the social rank which Trumbull felt that he had acquired during the last decade of the eighteenth century when he had served as secretary to Chief Justice John Jay to resolve the land disputes on the North American continent.
Twibill's portrait of Trumbull was first exhibited in 1835 and won the artist instant praise. It was described in The Knickerbocker as, "An admirable likeness of the veteran artist, and moreover an exceedingly well painted picture. The coloring is quiet and subdued, thus harmonizing well with the sedateness of old age...Mr. Twibill is without a rival in these small full-lengths." The composition of the portrait is indebted to the traditions established by Sir Godfey Kneller in the early eighteenth century and which was frequently employed by American portraitists throughout the nineteenth century.