Alexander Hamilton

c. 1792

John Trumbull

Painter, American, 1756 - 1843

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man wearing a coat and cravat looks off to our left with his chin tipped slightly up in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s shoulders and chest face us, but he turns to the left to look off in that direction with blue eyes under straight brows that angle up toward the center. He has a straight nose, rosy cheeks, full, bow-shaped lips, and a double chin. His wavy gray hair is brushed back from his high forehead and falls to his ears. His ivory-white ascot has a lacy border and is tied snugly around his neck with a bow in front. It is tucked into the high collar of his camel-brown jacket. His right arm, on our left, angles away from his body while the other is close to his side. He is warmly lit from the front set against a dark brown background.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 303-306, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/apublications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 62

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Avalon Foundation

  • Dimensions

    overall: 76.2 x 60.5 cm (30 x 23 13/16 in.)
    framed: 87 x 71.8 x 4.4 cm (34 1/4 x 28 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.1.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Oliver Wolcott [1760-1833], Litchfield, Connecticut, and New York;[1] his son, John Stoughton Wolcott [1802-1843], New York;[2] sold 1844 by his estate to William Jay [1789-1858], Katonah, New York;[3] his son, John Jay II [1817-1894], New York and Katonah, New York;[4] his son, William Jay II [1841-1915], New York and Katonah, New York;[5] his daughter, Eleanor Jay Iselin [Mrs. Arthur Iselin, 1882-1953]; by gift to her son, William Jay Iselin [1908-1951] by 1937;[6] from whose estate purchased 1952 by the Avalon Foundation for NGA.
[1] Wolcott owned the portrait by 1829, when he commented on it in his letter of 12 March to Dr. John R. Rhinelander; Oliver Wolcott Papers, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. The letter is quoted in Samuel Wolcott, Memorial of Henry Wolcott and Some of His Descendants, New York, 1881: 379 (information courtesy of Margaret Christman, NPG), quoted in Helen A. Cooper, ed., John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter, Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1982: 122, n. 2.
[2] Oliver Wolcott bequeathed to his son John "who resides with me and is the protector of my declining age all my books papers manuscripts pictures and household furniture" in New York and at the farm in Litchfield, with all buildings and "appurtenances thereof including the pictures & furniture in the mansion house"; manuscript copy of his will, 14 July 1832, Gibbs Family Papers, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison. On the Wolcotts see A. Böhmer Rudd, Wolcott Genealogy: The Family of Henry Wolcott, Washington, 1950: 113, and Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1944-1988, 10 (part 2):443-445 (Oliver Wolcott).
[3] After John Stoughton Wolcott's death, George C. Woodruff of Litchfield, Connecticut, offered the portrait to the Connecticut Historical Society. He wrote the secretary of the society on 15 February 1844 that it and three other portraits "were the property of the late Govr. Wolcott & now belong to the estate of his son Doct. Wolcott decd. . . . They have been sent me by the Executor Geo. Gibbs Esq. of New York" (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford; copy, NGA). The Society declined to buy them. William Jay's purchase of the portrait and the others of Washington, Adams, and Jay is recorded in his account book for 1844, according to Linda M. Connelly, site manager, John Jay Homestead (Katonah, New York). Midway during the year he noted that he "acquired four Trumbulls" and listed the names.

Clarence W. Bowen, ed., The History of Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as the First President of the United States, New York, 1892: 144.

"Col. William Jay" lent the painting to the exhibition at the American Art Galleries in New York in 1903.

A letter from Mrs. Iselin to the Atlantic Monthly Press, 29 March 1937, stated that her son owned the portrait (Frick Art Reference Library).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1889

  • Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits and Relics, Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 1889, no. 106.

1903

  • Loan Exhibiton of Portraits for the Benefit of the Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital, American Art Galleries, New York, 1903, no. 241.

Bibliography

1889

  • Loan Exhibition of Historical Portraits and Relics. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 1889: no. 106.

1892

  • Bowen, Clarence Winthrop, ed. The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as First President of the United States. New York, 1892: 144, 469, repro. opp. 26.

1897

  • Hart, Charles Henry. "Life Portraits of Alexander Hamilton." McClure's Magazine 8 (April 1897): 507, 510, repro.

1903

  • Loan Exhibition of Portraits for the Benefit of the Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital, Exh. cat. American Art Galleries, New York, 1903: no. 241.

1931

  • Bolton, Theodore, and Harry Lorin Binsse. "Trumbull, `Historiographer' of the Revolution." The Antiquarian 17, no. 1 (July 1931): 54.

1948

  • Sizer, Theodore. "A Tenative `Short-Title' Check List of the Works of Col. John Trumbull, Part II." The Art Bulletin 30, no. 4 (December 1948): 266.

1955

  • Bland, Harry MacNeill, and Virginia W. Northcutt. "The Life Portraits of Alexander Hamilton." The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd series, 12, no. 2 (April 1955): 191.

1956

  • Sizer, Theodore. "Col. John Trumbull's Works: A Final Report." The Art Bulletin 38, no. 2 (June 1956): 115.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 134, color repro.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:390, color repro.

1967

  • Sizer, Theodore. The Works of Colonel John Trumbull. Rev. ed. New Haven and London, 1967: 36, fig. 22.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 116, repro.

1975

  • Jaffe, Irma B. John Trumbull: Patriot-Artist of the American Revolution. Boston, 1975: 208, 309, fig. 146.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 249, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 75, repro.

1982

  • Cooper, Helen A., ed. John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter. Exh. cat. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1982: 122, no. 39.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 394, no. 561, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 369, repro.

1993

  • Miles, Ellen G., ed. The Portrait in Eighteenth-Century America. Newark, 1993, fig. 42.

1995

  • Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 303-306, color repro. 305.

Wikidata ID

Q20179908

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