Beschreibung:

Adams, JohnAutograph letter signed ("Your friend, John Adams"), to John Trumbull
2 pages (250 x 198 mm) on the first leaf of a bifolium of wove paper (watermarked Wilmont | 1815), Quincy, 18 March 1817, integral address leaf directed in another hand to Colonel John Trumbull at New York City [initial direction to the City of Washington ruled through], marked "Free" in Adams's hand and with his franking signature ("J. Adams"), and with Trumbull's reception docket; a little browned, some repair at folds and fold separations, seal tear neatly repaired, one small gouge and one small spot of ink erosion, each touching a couple of letters. Housed in a blue buckram portfolio with maroon morocco label with engraved portraits of Adams, Trumbull, and an engraved copy of Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence."
"[A]n Officer of Rank and merit in the Revolutionary Army … is now destined to transmit to Posterity some of its most celebrated military Events. …"
A remarkable letter on the iconography of the United States, written to John Trumbull a "founding father" of American art, whose four grand canvases hanging in the United States Capitol rotunda are among the most familiar images in American history: Declaration of Independence, Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and General George Washington Resigning His Commission.
The son of the Revolutionary War governor of Connecticut, John Trumbull was a largely self-taught artist. After he volunteered for Continental service in 1775, his skill in sketching enemy positions and installations caught the eye of George Washington, who made him one his aides de camp. Miffed at losing a promotion due to a question of precedence, Trumbull resigned in 1777 the colonelcy he had been awarded and devoted himself more seriously to painting. Although the record is unclear, in 1780, Trumbull may have undertaken secret missions on behalf of the nascent United States in both Paris and London. While in London, he studied with Benjamin West but was arrested, convicted of espionage, and imprisoned. After six months, he was released, but expelled from England. After the Treaty of Paris normalized relations between the two nations, Trumbull returned to London and his studies with West. There he began—with The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill—the series of contemporary historical paintings on which his fame rests.
Trumbull hoped to monetize his paintings by having them engraved, and while in Paris in 1786 in search of an engraver, he met Thomas Jefferson then U.S. minister France. It was Jefferson who suggested that Trumbull add the "merely political" (in John Adams’s words; see below) Declaration of Independence to his cycle of military subject. While in Paris, Trumbull took Jefferson’s portrait for the Declaration, as well as those of many French officers for Yorktown.
Returning to the States in 1789, Trumbull continued to make life portraits of many of the figures in his paintings, including George Washington. (At this point, the original paintings were largely finished other than the heads of the subjects.) But despite gaining such subscribers as Washington and John Adams sales of the engravings were slow, and Trumbull was forced to abandon the project for a decade while he pursued a diplomatic career, including service as John Jay’s secretary during the negotiation of Jay’s Treaty. Ironically, it was the aftermath of another war that revived Trumbull’s Revolutionary-era project. The Capitol had been badly damaged when the British burned Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812, and when the restoration of the building was being planned—which would encompass the original plan for a central rotunda—Trumbull proposed that monumental versions of his historical paintings be hung in the new space.
Early on, Trumbull sought the support of John Adams for this proposal, and in a 26 December 1816 letter to the former president he explained his scheme: "Twenty Eight years ago, I had the honor of painting in London your portrait in my picture of the Declaration of Independence,—the long succeeding period of War and Calamity palsied and suspended thy progress in the work of which that picture was a most important part. Peace is at length restored; I have resumed my task; that Picture is finished; Trenton, Princeton & York Town are far advanced; and in a few days it is my intention to take them all with me to Washington. The government of the U. S. are restoring to more than their original Magnificence the national buildings there, which were destroyed in the fury of War, and I have thought this the proper opportunity to make an application for public patronage & to request to be employed in decorating the walls of those buildings, with the paintings of national History which have employed so many years of my Life: I trust it will be thought that the declaration of Independence, with portraits of those eminent Patriots & Statesmen who then laid the foundation of the Nation; as also the military Pictures with portraits of the Heroes who either cemented that foundation with their blood, or lived to aid in the Superstructure will be appropriate Ornaments for the Halls of the Senate and the Representatives; as well as impressive lessons to future Statesmen & Heroes. The work has been carried thus far by my own unaided exertions, & can be completed only by me:—future Artists may possess superior talents, but time has already withdrawn almost all the models of that most interesting period—and I who was one of the youngest Actors in the early Scenes of the War, have passed the Age of Sixty & can scarcely hope for the time necessary to complete such an undertaking. The memory of your early kindness, and of the interest which you formerly took in this work, leave me no doubt of your approbation & powerful protection at this time." Adams replied on 1 January 1817, assuring Trumbull, "Your design has my cordial Approbation and best Wishes." However, Adams also admitted that he saw "no disposition to celebrate or remember, or even Curiosity to enquire into the Characters Actions or Events of the Revolution,” and that he was “more inclined to despair, than to hope for your Success in Congress: though I wish it with all my heart."
Despite Adams’s pessimism, Trumbull was able to report on 28 January, that "in this instance Our Country has departed from those erroneous principles which have too generally governed Man kind in the application of the Arts.—& that by a Vote nearly unanimous in the Senate, and by a very large majority in the House of Representatives, the President is authorized to employ me in painting four Subjects illustrative of the great events of the Revolution to be placed in the Capitol … of these the Declaration of Independance is the favorite.” In a follow-up letter of 3 March, Trumbull confirmed the assignment: “I have waited until I could write with certainty: and I did not feel that I could do this, until I knew the decision of the house of Representatives on the agreement made with me by the President:—the passing of the Appropriation bill by that house, including a Sum on account of that agreement, sanctions & concludes the transaction. I have now the Satisfaction therefore to acquaint you that unexpected Success has crowned my wishes (to which your cordial approbation contributed not a little.)—and that I am authorized to paint the Declaration of Independance:—the Surrender of Burgoyne:—the Surrender of Cornwallis:—& the resignation of Washington: … These pictures are to be 12 feet high, by 18 feet long, which will admit the principal figures to be large as life:—I shall begin with the Declaration of Independance, & shall exert all the Talent which I possess to produce a Work worthy of the scene, & of the high patronage under which I act." Trumbull's congressional appropriation has been called "the first great commission to be won by an artist in the United States" (Irma B. Jaffe, in American National Biography).
The present letter is Adams’s response to Trumbull’s joyful news, full of admiration of both the artist and his subjects:
"I thank you for your favour of the 3d. and congratulate you on your success; which I hope and believe will be an honourable and a noble Establishment, though it may not be so lucrative as I wish it, for Life[.]
"There is a coincidence of circumstances which affects me very sensibly. A son of Governor Trumbull so meritorious and so conspicuous a character in the Revolution; an Officer of Rank and merit in the Revolutionary Army; a Painter of Warren and Montgomery,: is now destined to transmit to Posterity some of its most celebrated military Events; one only merely political.
"The dimensions, 18 by 12 appear vast. Though I never past through Antwerp, without gazing at all the Paintings of Reubens, I cannot depend upon my memory to say that even his descent from the cross, or his Apotheosis of the Virgin exceed these Measures. [The Reubens works are, in fact, considerably smaller than Trumbull’s.]"I have been informed that one of greatest talents of a Painter, is a capacity to comprehend a large space, and to proportion all his figures to it.
"Truth, Nature, Fact, should be your sole guide. Let not our Posterity be deluded by fictions under pretence of poetical or graphical Licenses."
As Adams continues, he demonstrates that unlike Congress (at least as he perceived it), he did have the disposition to both remember and celebrate the characters and events of the Revolution. And despite his lifelong satisfaction in having championed the Declaration of Independence, he dates the birth of the Revolution some fifteen years earlier: to the debate in Massachusetts about the constitutionality of the Writs of Assistance that permitted British customs officials to colonists' homes, business, and even vessels without warning or warrant.
"Now, Sir, as I have taken the liberty of Friendship to preach to you; I ask your indulgence for a question or two.
"Who, of your profession will undertake to paint a Debate or an Argument? Discussions in the Legislature we call Debates; the disputes in the Tribunals of Justice we call Arguments.
"Who will paint the Arguments, in the Counsell Chamber in Boston in the Month of February 1761 between Mr {Jeremiah] Gridley and Mr [James] Otis, upon the question of Writts of Assistants? I dare not draw the Characters of Gridley or Otis. The latter, as if he had been inspired with a spirit of Prophecy, laid open to the view of a crouded Audience all that has since happened in America. Here the Revolution commensed. Then and there, the Child was born."
Extending his challenge to the ability of painting to truly capture history, Adams invokes his second cousin's confrontations with the Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson and Lt. Col. William Dalrymple, the military commander of the town of Boston. "Who will paint Samuel Adams at the head of ten thousand Freemen and Volunteers, with his quivering paralytic hands in the Counsel Chamber shaking the souls of Hutchinson and Dalrymple and driving down to the Castle the two offending Regiments, which Lord North ever afterwards called 'Sam. Adamses two Regiments'?"
Aware of the candor of his reply, Adams, in closing, asks for Trumbull's discretion. "I have known enough of your discretion to believe it unnecessary to caution you to consider this Letter as confidential from your Friend."
REFERENCES:https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6730 (Early Access document from The Adams Papers), with variations in paragraphing and a few incidentals. NB: the other Adams and Trumbull letters quoted in the description can similarly be found as Early Access documents in the online Adams Papers.
PROVENANCE:The Col. John Trumbull Letters and Papers (Stan. V. Henkels/Thos. Birch’s Sons, 1897, catalogue 778, lot 74) — Dr. George C. F. Williams Hartford, Connecticut (Anderson, 17 May 1926, lot 715: “Autograph Letters of John Adams are excessively rare. One on such a subject as this is well-nigh priceless.”)