“The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill,” 1786, by John Trumbull. Oil on canvas; 19.7 inches by 29.7 inches. Gift of Howland S. Warren, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. (Public Domain)
John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), John Trumbull (1756–1843), and Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828) are three of the most important early American artists. Their work captured scenes of colonial, revolutionary, and post-independence America—especially through portraiture of the country’s founding fathers.
Patriots Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, and John Adams were all from the colony of Massachusetts and played pivotal roles in the fight for independence. They are remembered by posterity to differing degrees, which some 21st-century biographies have fittingly corrected.
‘Portrait of Samuel Adams’
A portrait of Samuel Adams, circa 1772, by John Singleton Copley. Oil on canvas; 49.5 inches by 39.5 inches. Museum of Fine Arts Boston. (Public Domain)
Much of today’s knowledge about the influential life and times of the fiery and persuasive Samuel Adams has been watered down to two facts: a contemporary American craft brewery uses his name, and he was a second cousin of John Adams.
In fact, Samuel was initially better-known, but John’s fame, upon becoming a delegate to the Continental Congress and eventually president of the United States, later outshone that of his kinsman.
Pulitzer-prize winning biographer Stacy Schiff returns him to the pantheon of essential trailblazers of the independence movement in her new book “The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams.” Schiff highlights Adams’s role as one of the masterminds of the Boston Tea Party, leader and propagandist of civil resistance against the British colonizers, and an intended recipient of Paul Revere’s midnight ride message. He was a mentor for young men interested in the revolutionary cause, including Joseph Warren, John Adams, and John Hancock.
John Singleton Copley’s painting “Portrait of Samuel Adams” captures what Adams believed to be his greatest moment: his confrontation after the Boston Massacre with Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson in which Adams demanded the expulsion of British troops.
Copley was the foremost portraitist of colonial New England before leaving for London in 1774 and settling there permanently. Copley, though discreet about his politics, accepted the Samuel Adams portrait commission, reputed to have come from Hancock. He constructed a radical composition befitting his subject, utilizing a reductive style that employs few decorative aspects. In this work, he also does not shy away from depicting attributes highly specific to the subject, though the conventional style was to make general allusions so that a portrait remained idealized.
Detail of the portrait of Samuel Adams, circa 1772, by John Singleton Copley. (Public Domain)
The portrait of Samuel Adams, completed after numerous sessions, shows Adams dynamically standing at attention. This is an unusual pose in Copley’s oeuvre as his sitters are typically depicted literally sitting. With his pointed left index finger, Adams directs the viewer to the charter granted Massachusetts by King William and Queen Mary, and his right hand holds the petition “Instructions of . . . Town Boston” prepared by indignant fellow citizens.
In the composition, Adams’s head and hands are lit so that they standout against his modest and crumpled russet wool coat and the dark background. This highlights his intense and defiant stare and the important documents. Copley uses this portrait as an opportunity to allude to history painting, a genre he would continue to pursue in England. Two classical columns, not realistic to colonial Boston, along with Adams’s authoritative declamatory gesture, allude to ancient republican Roman senators. This image was much copied, and the circulation of reproductions aided Samuel Adams’s rallying of people to the revolutionary cause.
Battle of Bunker Hill
“The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill,” 1786, by John Trumbull. Oil on canvas; 19.7 inches by 29.7 inches. Gift of Howland S. Warren, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. (Public Domain)
An early major conflict of the Revolutionary War was the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, which occurred outside of Boston. It claimed the life of Dr. Joseph Warren, who had just accepted a role as a major general in the army but had not yet taken up the post.
Christian Di Spigna’s recent definitive biography “Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero” vividly charts Warren’s life. He was a skilled physician who grew his medical practice to be the largest in Boston, and his increasing political participation in revolutionary causes displayed his brilliant mind, pen, and oratory skills. Warren was one of the leaders of the Boston Tea Party, the main author of the Suffolk Resolves that inspired the Declaration of Independence, and the person who sent Revere to warn Samuel Adams that British troops were coming.
Upon his death, Warren became America' first popular hero and was idolized, yet many of his contributions faded from public memory. Di Spigna writes, “Perhaps one reason for Warren’s obscurity is that his martyrdom quickly overshadowed his many accomplishments. The many contemporary memorials for Warren focused almost exclusively on the battle.” Warren’s demise at Bunker Hill was famously memorialized on canvas by John Trumbull, becoming one of the best-known images of the Revolutionary War.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boson’s version of “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, 17 June, 1775” is one of several that Trumbull painted and was commissioned by the Warren family. Warren descendants bequeathed the painting to the museum in the 1970s. Trumbull, known as the “patriot-artist,” served for a time as a soldier in the Continental Army. After the British were defeated, he began a series of works to commemorate the Revolutionary War that would spread awareness and immortalize the noble actions of participants. “The Death of General Warren” was the first work he completed.
A detail of Warren dying in the arms of a militiaman referencing the iconography of the Lamentation. (R) "Lamentation over the Dead Christ," circa 1634–1640, by Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas; 61.4 inches by 100.7 inches. Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Spain. (Public Domain)
Trumbull’s representation of the scene is his own interpretation. While not factually accurate, it is a highly romanticized and dramatic narrative with heroic and religious iconography. The composition has references to Old Master images of the Lamentation: Warren is shown dying in the arms of a militiaman. A British soldier attempts to stab him with a bayonet and the fighting continues around the central scene. Despite the cloudy sky, Trumbull has the sun peak out to cast its aura on the dignified body of Warren. This painting was turned into a popular engraving and thousands of copies were bought.
Portrait of John Adams
A portrait of John Adams, circa 1800–1815, by Gilbert Stuart. Oil on canvas; 29 inches by 24 inches. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Public Domain)
During America’s early years of nationhood, the country’s foremost portraitist was Gilbert Stuart. In contrast to Copley, Stuart’s career trajectory began with training in London. He then returned to America and continued working to great acclaim. He inspired other prominent American artists, such as Trumbull, and was renowned for his refined ability to capture a sitter’s character through the choices he made in depicting their pose, expression, type of clothing, and setting.
Stuart is best remembered for the around 100 likenesses he made of George Washington. Today, these canvases are practically ubiquitous in important collections of American art, both private and public; one of these portraits even served as the model for the Washington engraving on the one-dollar bill. However, Stuart also painted notable, defining portraits of the four subsequent presidents.
The National Gallery of Art’s portrait of John Adams is Stuart’s first portrait of the second president, famed for his intelligence and passionate devotion to the cause of independence. It descended through Adams’s family, akin to the provenance of the Trumbull painting, before being gifted to the NGA in the mid-20th century.
Historian David McCullough provides insight about the relationship between subject and artist in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book “John Adams,” whose cover is graced by this portrait, explaining that Adams had regard for Stuart and found his conversation amusing during his sittings.
The impetus for the creation of the John Adams painting came from the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1798. They asked that Adams sit for a portrait, which they wanted to hang in Boston’s State House. Stuart began the painting in early 1800, with sittings likely taking place in the country’s then capital of Philadelphia. Unbeknown to Adams, he was in the final year of his presidency and would lose a bitter reelection battle to Thomas Jefferson.
Gilbert Stuart was notorious for delaying completion of his work and even leaving canvases permanently unfinished. It took 15 years for Stuart to finalize the painting, vexing Adams’s eager wife and son. Towards the end of the exasperating saga, Adams sat again for the portrait. By then he had been in retirement for 14 years, but McCullough writes, “His bedrock integrity, his spirit of independence, his devotion to country, his marriage, his humor, and a great underlying love of life were all still very much intact.”
Given the delay in completing the portrait, it is actually a reflection of Stuart’s later style, which is marked by his use of a looser technique. This is reflected in Adams’s cravat, shirt, and coat, along with impasto (paint that is thickly laid on the canvas so that brushstrokes are visible) marks on his forehead.
After all the drama, the finished portrait proved to be popular with copyists and engravers, and there was praise for the way Stuart was able to portray Adams as a statesman with his legendary and still intact vitality, albeit tempered by age. Perhaps the ultimate praise was that the Adams family later requested Stuart do a second portrait of John, which he did before the former president died at age 90 on July 4, 1826.
"John Adams," 1826, by Gilbert Stuart. Oil on canvas; 30 inches by 25 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (Public Domain)
Painters Copley, Trumbull, and Stuart each produced a distinct body of work that shaped the visual identity of early America. Examining their insightful portraits of these three founding fathers broadens one’s understanding of each patriot’s fascinating career. Furthermore, it brings the explosive and exciting times of America’s quest for nationhood to life.
Michelle Plastrik is an art adviser living in New York City. She writes on a range of topics, including art history, the art market, museums, art fairs, and special exhibitions.
