70 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



contents of this collection will be read with inter- 



irnlt of General Washington. The artist thought 

 this to be the best of all his portraits. Colonel Trumbull 

 in ton us us that this portrait was painted for the City of 

 Charleston in 17'.2, but that they preferred to see "VVasli- 

 u in his civil character, just as they had recently seen 

 him in his visit to that city. For this preference we have 

 11 to be grateful. I saw the Charleston portrait in a 

 public hall in that city, in February, 1845. It is far less 

 interesting than the military portrait in the Trumbull Gal- 

 lery. In the latter picture the perilous crisis and the lofty 

 decision which it produced, are happily expressed in the 

 countenance of the General, and his noble figure stands 

 out in full relief upon the canvas. Colonel Trumbull, 

 i we were looking at the paintings, said to me : " You 

 may assure your young men that they here see the General 

 \V< i slil, i I/tun of tl/c Revolution, exactly as he appeared at the 

 head of the armies, when he was in the meridian of life. 

 The height of the figure is six feet two inches, which was 

 !y his stature. His person, his spy-glass, his dress, 

 and all the appendages, even to his hat and gloves, are 

 faithful copies of the originals, and there is no other por- 

 trait existing which does justice to his military appearance 

 and character." " My first painting of Revolutionary 

 !ded he, "was the Battle of Bunker's Hill, on 

 li ncea.Mon then- were no horses, the officers being 

 all on loot. The English, who had no conception of a 

 without horses, when they saw this painting at the 

 .hibitinn in Somerset House in London, said: 

 : this American painter know what a horse is!' 

 In this painting of Washington, I answered that question." 

 'il'd by the cannonade, is firmly held by 

 "in, and is an appropriate companion of 

 who had always the finest horses; he was a 



