The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775 | Yale University Art Gallery

The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775 Artist: John Trumbull (American, 1756–1843)

1786

American Paintings and Sculpture

On view, 2nd floor, American Art before 1900


Trumbull began the Revolutionary War series with Bunker’s Hill to commemorate the battle he considered to be the earliest important event in the war. His focus here is not on the outcome of the encounter at Bunker’s Hill but on the noble behavior of the participants. Set under a blackening smoke-filled sky and against a chaotic background of dead and dying men, he depicts the climactic moment when American Major General Joseph Warren is mortally wounded by a musket ball just as the British successfully press beyond American lines. Seizing the bayonet of a grenadier who means to avenge a fallen officer, British Major John Small saves the expiring Warren from being stabbed. The expressions on the faces of the surrounding American soldiers and the two departing figures at right, Lieutenant Thomas Grosvenor and his black servant, combine concern for the dying Warren and astonishment at the magnanimity of Small. By emphasizing this act of humanity by the enemy, Trumbull honors morality that transcends national boundaries.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

25 5/8 × 37 5/8 in. (65.1 × 95.6 cm)

Credit Line

Trumbull Collection

Accession Number

1832.1

Geography

Depicted Bunker Hill, Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

18th century

Classification

Paintings

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
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, 87–88, no. 30, ill
  • Arthur S. Lefkowitz, Eyewitness Images from the American Revolution (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2017), 77, ill
  • Jennifer Greenhill, Playing It Straight: Art and Humor in the Gilded Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 95, fig. 56
  • Holger Hoock, Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War, and the Arts in the British World, 1750–1850 (London: Profile Books, 2010), n.p., fig. IX
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Smithsonian American Art Museum," American Art (Summer 2009), 116, no. 23/2, fig. 6
  • 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), 1, 25, 66, 82–83, no. 31, ill
  • Angela L. Miller et al., American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2008), 140, fig. 5.4
  • Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 354, fig. 1
  • Abigail Adams and John Adams, My Dearest Friend (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007), ill
  • Herbert Lacymayer, Mozart Experiment Aufkla¨rung im Wien des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006), 278, fig. 4
  • David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005), 22-23, 231, ill
  • Susan B. Matheson, Art for Yale: A History of the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2001), 16, 18, fig. 13
  • Timothy Keesee and Mark Sidwell, United States History, Third Edition (Greenville, S.C.: BJU Press, 2001), 105, ill
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982), 10,36, 49, fig. 17
  • Gary B. Nash, The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977), jacket cover, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

didactic art, histories (visual works), military history

Subject

American Revolution Battle of Bunker Hill Red coats battles deaths flags generals officers (military officers) wars

Signed

Signed LC "Jn. Trumbull./1786."

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