Existing comment:
Celebrating the Signers
John Trumbull capitalized on the public's interest in the signers. He took this painting The Declaration of Independence on a four-city tour that attracted 21,000 paying visitors, and he sold various engravings of his work. Other authors and engravers also sought to profit from Americans' love affair with the signers, producing a profusion of singers' biographies, exhibitions, and portraits.
The American public did not seem to mind -- or notice -- that Trumbull's painting depicted an event that never actually happened. The artist began work on his painting eleven years after the Declaration and he disregarded the fact that not all the members of Congress were present on August 2, when they began to sign. The fictitious assemblage of signers gathered on July 4th made a far more dramatic and marketable scene. |