Location

Country: Canada
City: Ottawa
Place: British High Commission

On a snowy morning in 1775, British and Canadian troops waited in the town of Quebec for the ambush they were expecting from General Montgomery’s battalion. As Montgomery neared the town, he dashed forward, calling his men to follow. A hail of shot from the Canadian side killed the leader and several of his troops, instantly. In this dramatic composition, Trumbull shows Montgomery dying in the arms of Major Matthias Ogden, while his two aides-de-camp are already dead in the snow. To the left of the composition, comrades express their shock and distress at the sight before them. Just left of Montgomery, Colonel Joseph Louis Cook, a Native American Officer who served in the Continental Army, raises his tomahawk defiantly.

John Trumbull’s original oil painting for ‘The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec’ (1786) is at Yale University Art Gallery, along with two preparatory studies for the painting.

Johan Frederik Clemens was a Danish line engraver of military, religious and other subjects, after his contemporaries. His prints include ‘Death of General Montgomery at the Attack of Quebec’ (published 1798) after John Trumbull (1756-1843) and ‘The Battle in the Roadstead, 2 April 1801’ after Christian August Lorentzen (1746-1828). Clemens worked for a time in Copenhagen, was in London during the years 1792 to 1795 and in 1825, and is known to have had an English wife.

People

Montgomery, RichardCheeseman, JacobMacpherson, JohnCampbell, DonaldThompson, WilliamAtiatoharongwenMeigs, Return JonathanHendricks, WilliamWard, SamuelHumphries, JohnCooper, SamuelOgden, Matthias

Places

Canada, Quebec City, Quebec

Subjects

topography, snow, Native/Central American, 18th century costume, military uniform, boots, breeches, flag, death, tomahawk, bayonet, cannon, musket, general, American Revolutionary War, Battle of Quebec

Materials & Techniques

engraving

Artist

John Trumbull (1756 - 1843)
Johan Frederik Clemens (1748 - 1831)

Title

The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack of Quebec, December 1775

Date

published March 1798

Medium

Engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Colnaghi, April 1952

GAC number

1547