Brigadier General Ebenezer Huntington,

1806

John Trumbull is best known for his historical paintings of significant events in the American Revolution. In 1785, shortly after the war’s conclusion, he began to “meditate seriously the subjects of national history,” a process suggested by his teacher, Benjamin West, and encouraged by Thomas Jefferson, who urged Trumbull to expand the scope of his envisioned series to include important nonmilitary events. Replicas of four of the resulting paintings were eventually installed in grand scale in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., providing the capstone of Trumbull’s long career. In the period between their installation in Washington in 1826 and the artist’s completion of the initial, easel-size versions, Trumbull gathered likenesses of many of the individuals depicted. This bust-length portrait of Ebenezer Huntington (1754–1834) was likely produced in such a context, as Huntington is included among the ranks of mounted offi cers in Trumbull’s Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, depicting the culmination of the war’s last major campaign. The portrait is a compelling image in its own right, with the distant gaze and slight upward tilt of the sitter’s head seeming to suggest an optimistic focus on the future.