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Painting History: John Trumbull and the Battle of Bunker's Hill

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Angelo T. Angelis
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Flags snap in the breeze and smoke hangs menacingly above the ground. Men clash, yield, and die in a desperate battle on the crest of a hill. These images merge to form John Trumbull's painting, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, 17 June 1775 (Figure 1). It is a dramatic image that appears frequently in print as illustration and cover art. Art historians comment positively on its technical merits, offering a variety of intriguing interpretations. These interpretations, though, frequently overlook the historical context of the original painting. Historical applications pair the painting with an appropriate historical text, but rarely take the opportunity to interpret the painting as a source in its own right. Historian Louis Masur makes this point when he criticizes the use of images in textbooks. Pictures, Masur argues, have become necessary but are not as a general rule presented in a way that asks or even allows for a complete reading of those same images. The loss is not merely in textbooks and other publications. It also occurs in the classroom, where pictures have become necessary backdrops for computer-supported lectures, and on Web site applications, where images dress but seldom add to the text.

This essay argues for a more complete use of images outside and inside the classroom. In doing so, it applies techniques from two disciplines — history and art history — to offer a more complete reading of John Trumbull's The Death of General Warren at Bunker's Hill. This reading is presented from multiple perspectives, including the historical context in which the image was created, the artist's connection to the subject, and his interpretive and technical choices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 30 , October 2005 , pp. 73 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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References

This essay has its origins in a graduate paper written under the direction of Prof. Louis Masur at Graduate Center, City University of New York. I thank Professor Masur for the insights he offered in this seminar and in the essays cited in the text.

1. For examples of interpretations and commentaries by art historians, see Prown, Jules David, “John Trumbull as History Painter,” in John Trumbull: The Hand and the Spirit, ed. Cooper, Helen (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982), 22–92Google Scholar; Jaffe, Irma, John Trumbull: Patriot-Artist of the American Revolution (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975)Google Scholar; Boime, Albert, The Art of Exclusion: Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990)Google Scholar; and Masur, Louis P., “‘Pictures Have Now Become a Necessity’: The Use of Images in American History Textbooks,” Journal of American History 84 (03 1998): 1409–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Masur's treatment of John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark takes the lead in this regard (see Masur, , “Reading Watson and the Shark,” New England Quarterly 67 [09 1994]: 427–53)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Trumbull, John, Self-Portrait (1812–1816)Google Scholar, oil on canvas, and Samuel Lovett Waldo and William Jewett, The “Patriot-Artist” (ca. 1821), oil on canvas, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Prown incorrectly dates the self-portrait as ca. 1802. Jaffe is puzzled by what Trumbull holds in his right hand, mistaking it for a magnifying glass and eyeglasses. A close inspection of the original canvas reveals the hilt of a sword (see Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 159Google Scholar; and Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 229Google Scholar).

3. Trumbull, John, The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, Patriot-Artist, 1756–1843, ed. Sizer, Theodore (New York: Kennedy Graphics, 1970), 3–6, 9Google Scholar.

4. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 9–10, 14–15Google Scholar.

5. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 16Google Scholar.

6. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 17–20, 89Google Scholar; Henry Pelham to Susanna Copley, 07 23, 1775, in Letters & Papers of John Singleton Copley and Henry Pelham, 1739–1776 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1914), 346–47Google Scholar.

7. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 19Google Scholar; Boston Gazette and Country Journal, June 19, 1775; Rivington's Gazette, June 29, 1775; and letter from Lt. John Waller, June 21, 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society. See also Ramsay, David, The History of the American Revolution, 2 vols., ed. Cohen, Lester H. (1789; rept. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund, 1990), 187–88Google Scholar; and Elting, John R., The Battle of Bunker's Hill (Monmouth, N.J.: Philip Freneau, 1975), 28Google Scholar.

8. Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 86Google Scholar; Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 50Google Scholar; Trumbull, John, The Death of Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775 (1786)Google Scholar, oil on canvas; The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777 (ca. 1789-ca. 1831), oil on canvas; and The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, 26 December 1776 (1786-ca. 1828), oil on canvas. All of the paintings are maintained as part of the Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.

9. Elting, , Battle of Bunker's Hill, 9, 29, 33, 50–51Google Scholar; and Frothington, Richard, Life and Times of Joseph Warren (New York: DaCapo, 1971; 1865), 519Google Scholar.

10. Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 317Google Scholar; and Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 50Google Scholar.

11. Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 50Google Scholar.

12. West, Benjamin, The Death of General Wolfe (1771)Google Scholar, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Wind, Edgar, “The Revolution of History Painting,” Journal of the Warburg Institute 2 (10 1938): 116–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Copley, John Singleton, The Death of Major Peirson (1782–1784)Google Scholar, oil on canvas, Tate Gallery, London.

13. Letter from Capt. Walter Laurie, June 23, 1775, as reproduced in Diamond, Sigmund, “Bunker Hill, Tory Propaganda, and Adam Smith,” New England Quarterly 25 (09 1952): 366–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; letter from Lt. John Waller; Elting, , Battle of Bunker's Hill, 34–35Google Scholar; and Frothington, , Life and Times, 517Google Scholar.

14. Letter from Capt. Walter Laurie, June 23, 1775, in Diamond, , “Bunker Hill,” 367Google Scholar; Abigail Adams to John Adams, 04 7, 1776, in Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution, ed. Adams, Charles Francis (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries, 1970), 151Google Scholar; and Frothington, , Life and Times, 519, 524Google Scholar.

15. Frothington, , Life and Times, 518 nGoogle Scholar.

16. Stuart, Gilbert and Trumbull, John, John Trumbull in Prison (1781)Google Scholar, oil on canvas, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Massachusetts. See Trumbull, John, Autobiography, 63–73, 70 n.Google Scholar; Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 51Google Scholar; Warren, Charles, “A Young American's Adventures in England and France During the Revolutionary War,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 65 (01 1934): 243–48Google Scholar; and Einstein, Lewis, Divided Loyalties: Americans in England During the War of Independence (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries, 1969), 357–83Google Scholar.

17. Elting, , Battle of Bunker's Hill, 32–33Google Scholar.

18. Boime, , Art of Exclusion, 21Google Scholar.

19. The preparatory sketches are held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the Susan Silliman Pearson Collection. They are reproduced in Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 49, 51Google Scholar.

20. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 88–89Google Scholar; and William Dunlop as quoted in Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 88Google Scholar.

21. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 24Google Scholar.

22. Trumbull, , Autobiography, 35Google Scholar. The defeat at Quebec occurred on December 31, 1775; Washington's victory at Trenton occurred on December 26, 1776; and his victory at Princeton was on January 3, 1777.

23. John Trumbull to James Lovell, February 22, 1777, in Trumbull, , Autobiography, 37–39Google Scholar.

24. Elbridge Gerry to Joseph Trumbull, March 26, 1777; and John Trumbull to James Lovell, March 30, 1777; both in Trumbull, , Autobiography, 40 n., 41–44Google Scholar.

25. Trumbull, John, Self-Portrait (1777)Google Scholar, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. See Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 21Google Scholar; Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 14Google Scholar; Cooper, 106–7; and Trumbull, , Autobiography, 50–51Google Scholar.

26. The Boston Massacre was celebrated from 1771 to 1783, including an oration in 1775 by Warren, Joseph (Orations, delivered at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, to commemorate the evening of the fifth of March, 1770… [Boston: W. T. Clapp, 1807])Google Scholar. See also Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 84Google Scholar; Seybolt, Robert Francis, “A Note on the Casualties of April 19, and June 17, 1775,” New England Quarterly 4 (07 1931): 525–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Adams, Charles Francis, “The Battle of Bunker Hill,” American Historical Review 1 (04 1996): 402, 404 n.Google Scholar

27. Abigail Adams to John Adams, 04 7, 1776, in Familiar Letters, 151Google Scholar; Frothington, , Life and Times, 547–50Google Scholar; New England Chronicle, or the Essex Gazette (Cambridge, Mass.), 06 22, 1775Google Scholar; and Diamond, , “Bunker Hill,” 366 nGoogle Scholar.

28. Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), 07 3, 1775Google Scholar.

29. See Warren, Mercy Otis, “To the Honble James Warren, Esq., President of the Congress of Massachusetts, on the Death of His Friend Major-General Warren, Who Fell in the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th, 1775,” in Mercy Otis Warren Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, BostonGoogle Scholar. Mercy Warren addressed the poem to her husband, James Warren, who was absent from Boston at the time. The two men, James and Joseph Warren, were not directly related but were close friends and political allies.

30. Abigail Adams to John Adams, 06 18, 1775, in Familiar Letters, 67Google Scholar.

31. Abigail Adams to Mrs. [John] Shaw, March 4, 1786, cited in Prown, , “John Trumbull,” 50Google Scholar.

32. Masur, , “Pictures,” 1414Google Scholar; and Jaffe, , John Trumbull, 84Google Scholar.