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Discovered: an unknown painting by John Trumbull

Magazine Antiques, March, 2005 by Irma B. Jaffe

There is no documentary evidence that John Trumbull painted, or even intended to paint, a scene depicting the burning of Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was torched by the British in June 1775, while the Battle of Bunker Hill was being fought less than a mile away. (1) Nothing regarding Trumbull's painting such a theme was discovered by Theodore Sizer (1892-1967), professor of art history at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who spent twenty years compiling a catalogue of paintings, drawings, and sketches by the patriot-artist. Drawing from every kind of source, such as Trumbull's own account books, diaries, and periodic lists of his paintings, as well as exhibition catalogues during and after the artist's lifetime and letters to and from Trumbull, Sizer examined works in public and private hands, discarded false attributions, and searched for many works mentioned in his sources that had disappeared in the course of a century. (2) Despite Sizer's meticulous, exemplary, and persistent scholarship, however, one cannot be completely surprised that an unfinished and unrecorded oil painting has recently come to light that can be confidently attributed to Trumbull. The Burning of Charlestown (Pl. II) was probably the painter's first attempt at depicting an event of the American Revolution. It displays certain characteristics of his mature paintings, as will be discussed further on, but its attribution rests largely on circumstantial evidence.

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The painting measures 14 1/4 by 19 7/8 inches as we have it today, but it was originally somewhat larger, judging by the cut-off figures at the left and right edges and the cut-off object at the bottom left. A faint image of the head and neck of a woman reveals that the canvas had been used previously as a vertical ground for a portrait; when held horizontally, the top of the head is perpendicular to the side of the building at the right (see Fig. 1). (3) Although the canvas has been cleaned, with some retouching, the cracking and the paint texture are commensurate with the subject matter, (4) which would date it to the late eighteenth century. As we shall see, it contains clues that lead to an even closer dating.

The Burning of Charlestown was in the possession of first one and then another Boston family who were closely related by friendship for many decades. Attached to the back of the canvas was a bookplate (now removed but remaining with the painting) that is printed with the Warren family arms (Pl. I). Across the top is handwritten "Burning of Charlestown/by Trumbull"; on either side of the arms are the words "given" and "to"; below the arms is printed "J. Mason Warren"; and handwritten along the bottom of the bookplate is "by/ Dr. H. J. Bigelow/June 17th 1863." This small document resonates with social and historical significance. Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818-1890) and Dr: Jonathan Mason Warren were friends and professional associates, as were their fathers, who had participated in a significant scientific advance together. (5) However, although the two families had been closely connected since revolutionary times, Bigelow's gift of The Burning of Charlestown to Warren on June 17, 1863, was much more than a gift between friends. It was in itself a historical act linked to the Battle of Bunker Hill, which had taken place exactly eighty-eight years earlier--on June 17,1775--just a few miles from Charlestown. (6) A highly significant event in the Revolution, the Battle of Bunker Hill has been described as having "rallied the colonies, spurred the Cont'l Congress into action, and banished any real hope of reconciliation .... [and] showed the British Government they were in for a real fight." (7) The recipient, Jonathan Mason Warren, was a collateral descendant of Dr: Joseph Warren, who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill and is depicted as the dying hero in Trumbull's Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, 17 June 1775 (Pl. III).

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Trumbull recalled in his autobiography that he was with his regiment at Roxbury on the day Charlestown was torched by the British. (8) About four miles away, "Charlestown and the hills behind it [Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill]," he wrote:

were in full view from the upper windows of headquarters, but the
distance was too great for the naked eye to ascertain what was doing. It
was about three o'clock when the firing suddenly increased ... and soon
after, with the help of glasses, the smoke of fire-arms became visible
along the ridge of the hill, and fire was seen to break out among the
buildings of the town, which soon ... enveloped the whole in flames....
Charlestown, at that time, contained perhaps six hundred
buildings ... almost all of wood, and lay full in our view, in one
extended line of fire.... The roar of artillery--the bursting of
shells ... and the blazing ruins of the town, formed altogether a
sublime scene of military magnificence and ruin. That night was a
fearful breaking in for young soldiers. (9)