Essay: Where The Founder Fits in the Picture

Four of John Trumbull's paintings of the American Revolution hang in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, but to see the complete series you have to visit the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Conn. What they say about the war and the country is still worth pondering.

Yale's Trumbulls hang on a wall the color of tomato soup in front of a green plush banquette meant to duplicate an overripe art gallery of the past century. It is best to study the paintings in the order of the events they depict. The first two are pictures of battles:...

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