Art: The Trumbull Case

Labeled Portrait of an Officer, Artist Unknown, it looked like a good, average, 18th-Century antique wall-piece, the kind that lends hints of lineage to a paneled drawing room. Bailey Stanton, Chicago lawyer and amateur art collector, liked it enough to buy it at auction—for $127.50.

One day Collector Stanton showed his Officer to Dr. Maurice Goldblatt, director of the University of Notre Dame art galleries. “My God, you’ve got something there,” said Dr. Goldblatt, who once helped the Louvre authenticate its famed Mona Lisa. He was, in fact, “90% sure it was a Trumbull” (John Trumbull, 18th-Century American historical painter and portraitist). Later he raised his assurance to 100%. And it was probably a portrait of Lafayette.

Dr. Goldblatt’s case: 1) Trumbull and Lafayette were friends and fellow officers in the American Army during the Revolution; 2) from known movements of Lafayette and Trumbull, the Officer must have been painted after Trumbull returned from Europe—and the Officer shows a treatment of lighting on forehead and hair which distinctly imitates a style of English Portraitist Thomas Gainsborough, who was showing in London at the time; 3) typical Trumbull traits in the Officer are straight-line highlights on buttons, the peculiar method of coloring the rectangular collar of the uniform.

Collector Stanton and Authority Goldblatt think the Officer is a better Trumbull than the famed Alexander Hamilton now in the National Gallery in Washington.