Artists and historians since the mid nineteenth century have acknowledged John Trumbull as the United States' premier "patriot-artist" of the early national period and have recognized his artistic contributions to that era and to modern perceptions of it. Frequently overlooked, however, is his one literary work, Autobiography, Reminiscences and Letters by John Trumbull from 1756 to 1841 (1841). Much of this memoir deals with his experiences in Europe between 1780 and 1815.

Trumbull was born on 6 June 1756 in Lebanon, Connecticut, the last of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as a representative to the Connecticut General Assembly and later as the colony's governor; his mother, Faith Robinson Trumbull, was descended from a spiritual leader of the Pilgrims, John Robinson. In 1761 Trumbull suffered a head injury that left him blind in his left eye. At a local school run by Nathan Tisdale, one of the finest tutors in the colony, Trumbull showed a...