Painting Patriots, Healing Wounds: The Art of Colonel John Trumbull

You have his work in your wallet, and he spent his life fighting to be taken seriously.

John Trumbull painted what he described to Thomas Jefferson as some of the noblest series of actions ever to present themselves in the history of man. The results hang in the Capitol Rotunda and turn up on American currency. Walter W. Woodward's illustrated talk covers how Trumbull became the Painter of the American Revolution, and the harder domestic story running underneath it: a son pushing for status as an artist against a father, Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, who did not think much of the ambition.

Who is giving it. Woodward was Connecticut State Historian from 2004 to 2022 and taught in UConn's history department. He has written five books on Early American and Atlantic World history, several of them award winners.

Good to know. Light refreshments follow. Tickets are on the museum's Eventbrite page.

Where to go. The Rotunda at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Avenue in Norwalk.