The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
1786–1820
American Paintings and Sculpture
Greatly impressed with John Trumbull’s plans to execute a series of American history paintings, Thomas Jefferson invited the artist to stay with him in Paris. There, Trumbull wrote, "I began the composition of the Declaration of Independence, with the assistance of [Jefferson's] information and advice." Trumbull represents the moment when the committee appointed to draw up the document submitted Jefferson’s draft for the consideration of the Continental Congress. Conscious of creating an image for succeeding generations, Trumbull made the whole committee—John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin—present the document to John Hancock, rather than Jefferson alone, which would have been historically accurate. He consulted Adams and Jefferson about who should actually be in the scene. They urged that all the delegates be included, even those who were not present or those who had opposed the Declaration and did not sign. The goal was to preserve the exact likenesses of those extraordinary individuals—aristocrats, lawyers, doctors, farmers, shopkeepers—who had put their lives and fortunes on the line. Trumbull worked on the Declaration for more than three decades, hoping to include all fifty-six figures, but he was unable to obtain all the likenesses. Of the forty-eight portraits here, thirty-six were taken from life; others were copied from an existing portrait or taken of a son as a substitute.
Audio Guides
Mark Mitchell, Curator
View transcript
I'm Mark Mitchell. I'm the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture here at the Yale University Art Gallery.
Here we're looking at John Trumbull's painting "The Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776." This is one of the icons of the history of American art but possibly the highlight of the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, which was founded by John Trumbull in 1832. This painting is, I think, in many people's minds, one of the icons of the whole history of the Revolution, right up there with "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Here you've got John Trumbull trying to think about what it means in this moment to be starting a new country in the 1770s and trying to establish itself as something different, something unique. He sets about this undertaking in 1786, and that's notably after the Revolution itself, but it's is nevertheless very close to it. And Trumbull had experienced the Revolution firsthand. His father was the only colonial governor to support independence here in Connecticut, and John Trumbull, the son—one of two sons named John—was able to witness some of the events, including, as you see next to this painting, the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The painting that we're looking at is very resonant with Americans' understanding of what the Revolution was about, for several reasons. It seems to tell the moment of the signing of the Declaration. Well, it is not the signing of the Declaration. This is July 4th, 1776, so this is the moment that it's approved, but it's not signed. It's not submitted. What you see in front of you is the drafting committee. You see John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin gathered in front of the desk of John Hancock, handing over the draft, which happened on June 28th. And so, several days earlier, this is submitted for review and consideration and is approved on July 4th—but then not signed until August. And so, for many people, this is a point of confusion about this painting. Well, what is it then, if it's not this moment? The forty-eight people that you see depicted here are not actually all present on July 4th. It is not intended to be one moment. It is intended to be the entire process. It is intended to represent everything about that assembly of people striving to create something distinct and new.
It was Jefferson in Paris in 1785 who told Trumbull that the one vignette he was missing from his conception of the events of the founding of the Republic was the declaration of Independence. And he, Thomas Jefferson, did the first drawing for this painting. It was Jefferson who told Trumbull that his project was incomplete and set about drawing for him, in Paris, what the assembly chamber looked like in the State House, what we now call Independence Hall in Philadelphia, so that Trumbull could start the process of configuring this painting.
And so it was that undertaking, inspired by Jefferson—and remarkably or notably, Trumbull would paint Jefferson from life onto this canvas as well as Franklin and Adams in London—and then, over the course of, I think, thirty-six years, that it takes him to assemble the likenesses of all the other people from life. He was totally dedicated to representing the men as best he could, and so he traveled widely. He assembled people as best he could, but it took him until 1820 to complete the painting, with admittedly a long period in there when he wasn't working on it. He came back to it and was able to complete it in the nineteenth century. So it is a remarkable painting that is much more of a class picture than it is a sort of key moment or single event in the approval of the Declaration of Independence.
- Medium
-
Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
-
20 7/8 × 31 in. (53 × 78.7 cm)
- Credit Line
-
Trumbull Collection
- Accession Number
-
1832.3
- Culture
- Period
-
18th–19th century
- Classification
- Disclaimer
-
Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.
Provenance
Provenance
Trumbull Collection, to 1832; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.Bibliography
- American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 15, 87, 89, no. 33, ill.
- Tanya Pohrt, "Reception and Meaning in John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence"," in "Teaching with Art," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2013), 117–18, fig. 2
- Eleanor Phillips Brackbill, An Uncommon Cape: Researching the Histories and Mysteries of a Property (Albany: State University of New York, 2012), 96, fig. fig. 6.3
- Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 2, 25–26, 66, 80, 86–87, 94, 96, 219, no. 33, ill.
- David Preston, James Monroe, exh. cat. (Fredericksburg, Va.: University of Mary Washington, 2008), 16, ill.
- Jerry Bentley, Traditions and Encounters, Fourth (Boston: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 2008), 785, ill.
- Christopher Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels (Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Military, 2008), ill.
- Herbert Lacymayer, Mozart Experiment Aufkla¨rung im Wien des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006), 281, fig. 7
- David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005), 130-131, ill.
- Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 10 (detail), 13, fig. 10
- Helen A. Cooper et al., John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982), 1, 77, pl. 25, fig. 1
Object copyright
Additional information
Object/Work type
Technical metadata and APIs
- IIIF
-
The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more
- Linked Art
-
Linked Art is a Community working together to create a shared Model based on Linked Open Data to describe Art.