218 Trumbull Gallery of Paintings in Yale College. 



ters, in the several compositions for which they were intended, 

 he afterwards travelled through various parts of the country from 

 New Hampshire to South Carolina, in search of others ; and in 

 1794, had nearly completed the collection of portraits, views of 

 places, and all the various materials necessary to the execution of 

 his entire plan. 



During this period the work attracted much attention, and was 

 generally approved. All saw the correctness of the portraits ; 

 many knew the accuracy of the circumstances recorded : and it 

 was proposed to employ the artist to execute the entire series for 

 the nation. This proposal failed to be carried into effect ; not 

 through any opposition from any quarter to the propriety and fit- 

 ness of the object, but because the nation then possessed no build- 

 ing proper to receive and preserve such v/orks ; and because 

 doubts existed then, as they have since, in the minds of some 

 gentlemen, whether Congress possessed the right of appropriating 

 the public money to such purposes. 



In the mean time the French Revolution had commenced, and 

 its subsequent convulsions diverted the attention of all mankind, 

 during many years, from the Fine Arts, and from all the works 

 and thoughts of peace ; and the further prosecution of this object 

 was suspended, until the government of the United States, in the 

 year 1816, were pleased to pass a resolution, authorizing the artist 

 to execute four of the subjects for the nation ; — just thirty years 

 after he had painted the battle of Bunker's Hill. 



The attention of the artist was exclusively devoted to the exe- 

 cution of this honorable commission, until it was completed, when 

 he resumed the small set of these- then unfinished studies; and 

 although the lapse of near forty years might have been expected 

 to have impaired his sight in a degree which would have pre- 

 vented the possibility of finishing such small works, ^'■et, by the 

 blessing of God, he has acomphshed his original purpose to the 

 extent, and with the degree of success which is now submitted 

 to public examination. 



CATALOGUE, &C. 



No. 1. — The Duke of Wellington. Painted from a bust ; 

 it is recognized as a good likeness by English gentlemen and 

 others acquainted with the features of the Duke. 



