Monday Lecture: "The Patriot Painters: Peale, Stuart, Trumball and Early American Art"
a Semiquincentennial event
Monday, June 8, 2026
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Smyrna Library, Meeting Room
Light refreshments will be served.
Dr. William Marchione will examine the contrasting lives and careers of the principal painters of U.S. early national history: Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and John Trumball. Charles Willson Peale is best remembered for his monumental portraits of George Washington and other Revolutionary War era figures, and for organizing and opening America’s first natural history and art museums in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Gilbert Stuart was one of 18th century America’s master portrait artists. Stuart is best known for his unfinished Athenaeum portrait of George Washington. John Trumbull was an American painter, diplomat and architect. He is noted for his four large history paintings in the Capitol Rotunda, which depict pivotal moments before, during and after the Revolutionary War.
