Lieutenant John Trumbull Ray

Andrew Robertson, Thomas Seir Cummings, Lieutenant John Trumbull Ray, ca. 1830, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1942.11.9
Copied Thomas Seir Cummings, Andrew Robertson, Lieutenant John Trumbull Ray, ca. 1830, watercolor on ivory, sight 3 1⁄8 x 2 1⁄2 in. (8.0 x 6.2 cm) oval, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1942.11.9
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Lieutenant John Trumbull Ray
Artists
Copy after Andrew Robertson
Date
ca. 1830
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sight 3 1⁄8 x 2 1⁄2 in. (8.0 x 6.2 cm) oval
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund
Mediums
Mediums Description
watercolor on ivory
Classifications
Subjects
  • Portrait male — Ray, John Trumbull — bust
  • Occupation — military — captain
Object Number
1942.11.9
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1942.11.9

Artwork Description

John Trumbull Ray was the illegitimate son of Captain John Trumbull, one of colonial America’s leading portrait painters. Following the death of his first love, Trumbull had an affair with one of his brother’s servants, a woman named Temperance Ray. She bore a son in 1792 who strongly resembled Trumbull. Trumbull provided money for the boy’s upbringing, passing him off as his “nephew.” Against his father’s wishes, Ray enlisted in the British army in 1812, and served in the Peninsular War under Wellington. In 1814 he was made lieutenant, and arranged to have Andrew Robertson, a leading Scottish miniaturist, paint his portrait. Thomas Seir Cummings made two copies of that miniature, one of which is on display here.