John Trumbull

John Trumbull was born on June 6, 1756, in Lebanon, Connecticut. He served as a colonel and deputy adjutant-general in the Revolutionary War. Between 1780 and 1785, Trumbull went to London three times to study art with Benjamin West, the American painter who had a studio in London. Trumbull began a series of paintings dealing with the Revolutionary War, including "The Battle of Bunker Hill" and several portraits of George Washington. From 1794 to 1804, Trumbull served as US Ambassador to London. In 1817, he painted four large historical paintings, used in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., which was rebuilt after the War of 1812. In 1834, Benjamin Silliman, a Yale professor and nephew of Trumbull, established the Trumbull Gallery at Yale, to contain and display Trumbull's paintings. It was the first art gallery at a school in America. Trumbull himself designed the building himself, and gave some of the best of his works in exchange for an annuity. In 1841, at Silliman's urging, Trumbull wrote his Autobiography. Trumbull died in New York City, on November 10, 1843.