John Trumbull (Classic Reprint) 12+

📗 Excerpt from John TrumbullThe original IN the possession OF prof. B. Silliman, new haven.taken, and the British were overrunning the Southern States almost without Opposition. This news was a coup de grace to my commercial projects, for my funds consisted in public securities of Congress, the value of which was annihilated by adversity. Before leaving America, Trumbull had been advised by a Mr. Temple, consul-general of Great Britain in New York previous to the commencement of hostilities, and who, married to an American lady, was regarded as a neutral, to go to London to study art. This gentleman, moreover, as he was a man of influence in England, relieved him of any fears of being molested there on account Of his having been a rebel officer. Accordingly, he proceeded at once to Paris, where he found Dr. Franklin, who gave him a letter to Benjamin West, in London, then in high favor with the Court and King, and to whom he soon delivered it. West received Trumbull kindly, and set him to work. He began with copying West's copy of Raphael's Madonna a'ella Seggiola, and Gilbert Stuart, then also a pupil of West, showed him how to mix and apply his colors. Perhaps this initiation into the mysteries of the palette was more useful to him than West's, for Stuart's instinct for color must have been worth more as a guide than any of their master's precepts. West was pleased with the copy. He pronounced Trumbull intended for a painter, and with this stimulant I d...