Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Island-born Continental Army general, is the subject of this portrait miniature painted by artist John Trumbull in 1792. Greene, a successful general and a close friend of George Washington, emerged from the American Revolution a well-known and beloved military hero. Trumbull did not paint Greene from life, as the general had died from sunstroke in 1786. Trumbull wrote to his brother that Greene’s death had reminded him of the "precariousness" of life and sped up his efforts to paint surviving revolutionary figures.