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Lot Essay
In 1783, John Trumbull sought to establish his reputation as a history painter in London and seeking a subject that would appeal to his local audience, he chose to render the sortie of November 26, 1781, when British troops successfully destroyed Spanish defenses during the siege of Gibraltar. The central figure is the dying Spanish captain, Don Jose Barboza, who after being mortally wounded, valiantly declined the assistance of the British. From 1787 to 1789, Trumbull painted three versions and the sketch offered here most closely resembles the last of the these, which is now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 1976.332). As seen here and in the MMA work, Barboza lies on the ground, leaning away from the British General Elliott, his left arm raised while his head slumps in the opposite direction. In contrast, Barboza is leaning toward Elliott in the 1787 work, while his head is raised in the 1788 rendition (National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection, acc. no. 2014.136.100; Cincinnati Art Museum, acc. no. 1922.104). For more on Trumbull’s sketches and finished oils of the scene, see Jean Lambert Brockway, “Trumbull’s Sortie,” The Art Bulletin, vol. 16, no. 1 (March 1934), pp. 4-13.
Dated 1936, the inscription on the mount notes that the sketch was given by the artist to Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis (1779-1852), the granddaughter of Martha Washington and adopted granddaughter of the President, in April 1790. While this cannot be proven, circumstances indicate that such a gift and the timing are highly plausible. The Trumbull family had many close ties to Washington with the artist and his brother Jonathan Trumbull (1740-1809) both serving as aides-to-camp to the General during the Revolutionary War. In April 1790, the President, Mrs. Washington, 11-year old Nelly and her brother George Washington Parke Custis were living in New York City, the seat of government and from February to July 1790, George Washington notes in his diary that he sat for Trumbull fourteen times for the artist’s American history series begun in London and Washington at Verplanck’s Point (Edgar P. Richardson, American Paintings and Related Pictures in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (Winterthur, Delaware, 1986), p. 79). Furthermore, Nelly was an amateur artist and the gift may have been in part an act of encouragement. In 1793, Nelly was given a box of paints by George Washington and the following year, was instructed by the British artist William Groombridge (1748-1811) (see Christie’s, New York, 16 January 2004, lot 502; for examples of Eleanor Parke Custis’ art, see Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, nos. W-4264, W-3614/A-D). Trumbull painted Nelly in 1792 and in his later correspondence with George Washington, it is clear that the two had mutual affection for each other (Trumbull’s 1792 portraits of Nelly Custis are in the collections of Yale University Art Gallery and Kenmore Plantation, Fredericksburg, Virginia; John Trumbull, Autobiography, Reminiscences and Letters of John Trumbull, from 1756 to 1841 (New Haven, Connecticut, 1841), pp. 383, 387).
The sketch was owned in the early twentieth-century by Ralph Heyward Isham (1890-1955), a Trumbull family descendant and it is possible that like a watercolor miniature of the artist, the sketch descended in the family from Trumbull to his nephew, John Mason Trumbull (1784-1859), to his granddaughter, Julia Trumbull Ripley (b. 1842), to her first cousin once removed, Ralph Heyward Isham (Yale University Art Gallery, no. 2014.83.1). If, however, the sketch was given to Nelly Custis, it may have returned to the Trumbull family in the nineteenth century as the two families maintained ties established in the eighteenth century. For example, in 1824, Mary Lee "Molly" Fitzhugh Custis (1788–1853), Nelly’s sister-in-law, presented Mrs. Eunice (Backus) Trumbull (1749-1826), the widow of the artist’s brother, Governor Jonathan Trumbull (1740-1809), with a china set owned by Martha Washington (Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, W-509, discussed in Hannah Boettcher and Ronald W. Fuchs II, “Martha Washington’s ‘United States China’: A New Link Found in a Family Notebook,” Ceramics in America 2020, Robert Hunter and Ronald W. Fuchs II, eds. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2020), p. 67, fig. 26).
Dated 1936, the inscription on the mount notes that the sketch was given by the artist to Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis (1779-1852), the granddaughter of Martha Washington and adopted granddaughter of the President, in April 1790. While this cannot be proven, circumstances indicate that such a gift and the timing are highly plausible. The Trumbull family had many close ties to Washington with the artist and his brother Jonathan Trumbull (1740-1809) both serving as aides-to-camp to the General during the Revolutionary War. In April 1790, the President, Mrs. Washington, 11-year old Nelly and her brother George Washington Parke Custis were living in New York City, the seat of government and from February to July 1790, George Washington notes in his diary that he sat for Trumbull fourteen times for the artist’s American history series begun in London and Washington at Verplanck’s Point (Edgar P. Richardson, American Paintings and Related Pictures in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (Winterthur, Delaware, 1986), p. 79). Furthermore, Nelly was an amateur artist and the gift may have been in part an act of encouragement. In 1793, Nelly was given a box of paints by George Washington and the following year, was instructed by the British artist William Groombridge (1748-1811) (see Christie’s, New York, 16 January 2004, lot 502; for examples of Eleanor Parke Custis’ art, see Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, nos. W-4264, W-3614/A-D). Trumbull painted Nelly in 1792 and in his later correspondence with George Washington, it is clear that the two had mutual affection for each other (Trumbull’s 1792 portraits of Nelly Custis are in the collections of Yale University Art Gallery and Kenmore Plantation, Fredericksburg, Virginia; John Trumbull, Autobiography, Reminiscences and Letters of John Trumbull, from 1756 to 1841 (New Haven, Connecticut, 1841), pp. 383, 387).
The sketch was owned in the early twentieth-century by Ralph Heyward Isham (1890-1955), a Trumbull family descendant and it is possible that like a watercolor miniature of the artist, the sketch descended in the family from Trumbull to his nephew, John Mason Trumbull (1784-1859), to his granddaughter, Julia Trumbull Ripley (b. 1842), to her first cousin once removed, Ralph Heyward Isham (Yale University Art Gallery, no. 2014.83.1). If, however, the sketch was given to Nelly Custis, it may have returned to the Trumbull family in the nineteenth century as the two families maintained ties established in the eighteenth century. For example, in 1824, Mary Lee "Molly" Fitzhugh Custis (1788–1853), Nelly’s sister-in-law, presented Mrs. Eunice (Backus) Trumbull (1749-1826), the widow of the artist’s brother, Governor Jonathan Trumbull (1740-1809), with a china set owned by Martha Washington (Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, W-509, discussed in Hannah Boettcher and Ronald W. Fuchs II, “Martha Washington’s ‘United States China’: A New Link Found in a Family Notebook,” Ceramics in America 2020, Robert Hunter and Ronald W. Fuchs II, eds. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2020), p. 67, fig. 26).