English
Molded Bristol Glass with painted design, Late 18th century
Gift of Raymond Case
100.0041
The Norwich Galleries
Gallery Highlights
John Trumbull (1756-1843)
Oil on canvas, c. 1820
180.0018
Gift of Raymond B. Case
As a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, Trumbull rendered a particular service at Boston by sketching plans of the British armaments works, and witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was appointed second personal aide to General George Washington, and in June 1776, deputy adjutant-general to General Horatio Gates. He resigned from the army in 1777.
In 1780 he traveled to London, where he studied under noted portrait painter Benjamin West. At his suggestion, Trumbull painted small pictures of the War of Independence and miniature portraits, of which he produced about 250 in his lifetime.
On September 23, 1780, British agent Major John André was captured in America, and on October 2, 1780, hanged as a spy. News reached Europe, and as an officer of similar rank as André in the Continental Army, Trumbull was imprisoned for seven months in London's Tothill Fields Bridewell.
In 1784 he was again in London working under West, in whose studio he painted his Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of General Montgomery at Quebec. Both works are now in the Yale University Art Gallery.
In 1785 Trumbull went to Paris, where he made portrait sketches of French officers for Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. With the assistance of Thomas Jefferson, he began Declaration of Independence, well-known from the engraving by Asher Brown Durand (1823). This latter painting was purchased by the United States Congress, along with his Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and Washington Resigning his Commission, between 1820 and 1821. All now hang in the rotunda of the United States Capitol. Allegedly because Congress voted enough money only for four paintings, these four of Trumbull's paintings on the Revolution are hung there. Not hung were Death of General Warren at Bunker Hill; Death of General Montgomery at Quebec; Capture of Hessians at Battle of Trenton; Death of General Mercer at Battle of Princeton. Trumbull's The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789, owned by the Boston Athenaeum, now hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. While in Paris, Trumbull is credited with having introduced Thomas Jefferson to the Italian painter Maria Cosway, who would become an intimate friend for the rest of his life.
Trumbull sold a series of 28 paintings and 60 miniature portraits to Yale University in 1831 for an annuity of $1000. By far the largest single collection of his works, it was originally housed in a neoclassical art gallery designed by Trumbull on Yale's Old Campus, along with portraits by other artists.
Trumbull's portraits include full lengths of General Washington (1790) and George Clinton (1791), in New York City Hall, where there are also full lengths of Alexander Hamilton (1805, and the source of the face on the U.S. $10 bill) and John Jay, and portraits of John Adams (1797), Jonathan Trumbull, and Rufus King (1800); of Timothy Dwight and Stephen Van Rensselaer (both at Yale), Alexander Hamilton (in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, both taken from a marble bust by Giuseppe Ceracchi), a portrait of himself painted in 1833, a full length of Washington, at Charleston, South Carolina, a full length of Washington in military costume (1792), (now at Yale), and portraits of President and Mrs. Washington (1794), in the National Museum of American History.
Trumbull's own portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart and by many others.
In 1794 Trumbull acted as secretary to John Jay in London during the negotiation of the treaty with Great Britain, and in 1796 he was appointed among the five commissioners to carry out parts of the treaty.
Trumbull was appointed president of the American Academy of the Fine Arts, a position he held for nine years, from 1816 to 1825. He alienated his students, leading to the decline of the American Academy and the founding the National Academy of Design.
John Denison Crocker (1822-1907)
Oil on canvas, 1847
Bequest of William A. Slater
180.0263
Maker Unknown
Whale Tooth, Early 19th century
160.0006
Gift of Mrs. Elisha Rogers
Maker Unknown
Santo Domingo Mahogany, c. 1740
90.0020
Paul Bartlett, American (1865-1925)
Plaster
Study for a proposed bronze portrait statuette
230.0025
Hiram Powers (1805-1873)
Marble, n.d.
230.0192
Before moving to Paris in 1836, Powers was well known in Washington, DC for his portrait busts. His commissions included political dignitaries such as Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster and John Quincy Adams. These vanity pieces quickly were over- shadowed by his overwhelming success of his statuary that he created once he left America.
John Denison Crocker (1822 – 1907)
Oil on canvas, c. 1850
Friends of Slater Museum purchase
180.1201
This important scene is taken from a bluff, now the site of a new shopping center, obliterating the view of the river and the grand vista of the valley. Searching on a Google Earth or Bing map of Lisbon, Connecticut, one can acquire an aerial view of this scene today. All of the landmarks Crocker included this sweeping painting are present; the river with its undulating curves, the rail road track forming a parallel to the river and the dirt road which became State Route 12. Much of the arable land is still farmed today.
John Whittlesey, c. 1830
Mahogany with rosewood inlay, gilt stencil with dolphin motifs, brass ornaments and seven legs of twisted rope pattern.
90.0023
Gift of Mrs. Sidney (Sarah) Burleigh