Arikah Map

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence is an iconic 12- by 18-foot painting in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda depicting the presentation of the draft of the Declaration to Congress.

Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life and visited Independence Hall as well to depict the room in which the Second Continental Congress met.

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence:John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
Enlarge
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

The scene depicted actually never took place in the presence of all the people in the picture. The painting is often mistakenly called the "Signing of the Declaration of Independence," but only shows the presentation of the draft.

The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817; purchased 1819; and placed in 1826 in the Rotunda.

If you look closely, Thomas Jefferson's foot is stepping on John Adams's. This symbolizes their political relationship. They were political enemies. This has been removed from the back of the $2 bill because the government thought it was a mistake by the artist to put that there, but the artist knew full well of what he was doing.

Trumbull's work shows 42 of the 56 signers of the Declaration, and five figures in the painting did not sign.


Contents

Unpictured signers

There were 14 signers of the Declaration who did not appear in the painting:

On the two-dollar bill

Trumbull's painting is the source of the picture on the reverse of the two-dollar bill, which cuts out the farthest four figures on the left (George Wythe, William Whipple, Josiah Bartlett and Thomas Lynch) and the farthest two figures on the right (Thomas McKean and Philip Livingston). The bill features 42 of the 48 figures from Trumbull's painting.

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence:2 dollars bill (reverse)

Key to historical figures depicted in the painting

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence:U.S government's key to the painting
Enlarge
U.S government's key to the painting
Trumbull's Declaration of Independence:John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
Enlarge
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

The following Wikipedia-article key to the figures in the painting follows the numbering used by the U.S. Government publication "Art of the Capitol" (in the illustration of the key shown in this section) but provides a different (hopefully clearer) description of which figure is where in the painting, so numbers are not entirely in order.

Key to figures ("left" and "right" are the viewer's "left" and "right"; in each group, listed from left to right):

Four men seated on the far left:

Seated at the table on the left:

Seated together to the right of Harrison and in front of the standing figures:

Five figures standing together on the left:

Three seated figures in the back between the two sets of standing figures:

Set of three figures standing together in the back:

Ten figures seated:

Five figures standing in front:

Four background figures seated together near the right corner of the room:

Two figures standing in the right corner of the room:

Two foreground figures at the central table:

Three figures standing at right:

Two figures seated at far right:

Similar paintings

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy, is a similar painting depicting members of the Constitutional Convention. Painted in the Twentieth century, the work is also located in the U.S. Capitol.

Footnotes

    Keys to the figures

    Other

    Categories


    American art

    Find

    Find

    Find