JOHN TRUMBULL (1756-1843)
Autograph Document Signed, London, March 12, 1799
4 1/4 x 8 inches

N this extraordinary document, the great painter of the American Revolution lists the disposition of eleven examples of the 1799 engraving by William Short (1749-1824) of Trumbull's painting The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar, 1789. The scene depicts an episode in the campaign whereby the British, through ingenuity and bravery, defeated a combined French and Spanish effort to conquer Gibraltar.

Trumbull cites among those acquiring examples of this print, his great admirer and good friend Thomas Jefferson and Arthur Lee, a diplomat, whose portrait miniature Trumbull painted in 1790 and who had died in 1792. Another copy is listed as a present for Gilbert Stuart. Also signed and dated on the verso, these eleven examples of the print identified as "Gibraltar" valued by Trumbull at 154 dollars, are consigned to a prominent Philadelphia businessman, Joseph Anthony (whose sister had married Gilbert Stuart's father).

Seldom does one find so many illustrious individuals linked by one of their number on a single document.

$7500

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