Signing of the Declaration

This is John Trumbull's depiction of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence. David McCullough had a great piece in the paper about the picture. Below is an excerpt.



"At the time the painting was first installed at the Capitol, complaints were numerous. It was criticized for "violations of truth" and for the number of gentlemen's legs on display. (Rep. John Randolph dismissed it as nothing but a "Shin-piece.") It was noted, as it is still, that if one looked closely, Thomas Jefferson appeared to be standing on John Adams's foot. Indeed, it is this that inspires most of the questions present-day visitors put to the Capitol guides. Is it true, they ask, that Jefferson bribed Trumbull to make it look that way, to show that he, Jefferson, outranked Adams? This, they say, is "the story" they've heard.

There is no truth to it. The misplaced foot is something of an optical illusion, due mainly to Trumbull's less than masterful drawing.

That Trumbull felt deeply the symbolic importance of his subject there is no doubt, in both versions of the scene. Nor does he leave any question about the importance of both Jefferson and Adams in how he has placed them in the composition. Jefferson stands tallest, as he did in real life. His red vest further draws our attention, and it is he who holds the document in his hands. But it is Adams alone who is presented full-figure, and who has been placed at the exact center of the composition. (Lines drawn from opposite corners of the painting cross in the middle of Adams's chest.) It was Jefferson's declaration, Trumbull seems to be saying, but it was Adams who stood at the center of what happened, in that it was he who got the Congress to cast the all-important unanimous vote for the Declaration.

That Trumbull's large rendition at the Capitol continues to draw such crowds would surely please Trumbull beyond measure. Yet it is the much smaller version, Trumbull's gift to Yale along with an incomparable collection of his other history paintings, that is the masterpiece—and it, too, let us hope, will be the subject of increasing appreciation for a very long time to come."

The Yale version is above.