1756 - 1843. Born in Lebanon, Connecticut, John Trumbull is one of America's best-known Colonial portrait and history painters. He is especially noted as the person who documented in his paintings the founding fathers of America and the history of the American Revolution. One of his most famous paintings is titled Declaration of Independence, and having fought in the Revolution, Trumbull was extremely proud and asked to be called Colonel Trumbull in recognition of that service.

He, along with Asher Durand and William Dunlap, is also credited as one of the artists who 'discovered' and promoted the landscape painting of Thomas Cole, whose work spoke to Trumbull's convictions that American artists should explore new subjects and methods and chart new directions. In his later years, Trumbull expressed frustration that he had given into what the public wanted from him, which made him more conservatively artistically than he had earlier intended with his career. He also believed that other talented painters such as John Copley and Gilbert Stuart had 'lost their artistic way' and held to 'safe" painting subjects and styles and spent more time working in Europe than America.