Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")

Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")

John Trumbull

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trumbull is considered the most learned artist and skilled draftsman of his generation in America. Between 1789 and 1791 he traveled the eastern seaboard of the United States drawing portrait studies of military heroes to ensure the accuracy of the likenesses he would render in his famed Revolutionary War paintings. His portrait drawing representing Brigadier General Hugh Mercer is one of thirteen extant studies for the painting “The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777” (Yale University Art Gallery). Because his subject was deceased, Trumbull used for his model Mercer’s son Hugh Jr.; he twice sketched the young man in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in April 1791.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")Hugh Mercer, Jr. (Study for "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Janury 3, 1777")

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.