Portrait of George Washington (1732-1799)

Date1780

Artist Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumOil on linen ticking

DimensionsOther (Unframed): 96 1/4 × 61 3/4in. (244.5 × 156.8cm) Framed: 106 × 71 1/4 × 3 1/2in.

Credit LineGift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Object number1933-502,A&B

DescriptionA full-length portrait of a man, standing in the uniform (dark blue with buff facings) of the Continental army, also a buff waistcoat and white knee breeches, with a broad blue ribbon across his chest; he is turned slightly to the viewer's left and holds his hat in his proper right hand, which rests on his hip; his proper left hand rests on a cannon barrel, which projects into the picture from center right. He stands with his weight on his proper right foot, his proper left leg bent and crossed over the right at the knee, the toe resting on the ground.

Several buildings are visible in the left background, including a very large, 3 1/2-story one with multiple chimnies and a cupola. In the open space between the buildings and the central figure, soldiers under guard are being marched off to the right. In the middle ground at far left, two horsemen are shown beside a leafless tree, one of them pointing toward the retreating column of soldiers. At far right, close to the central figure, an attendant holds a horse by the bridle beneath a blue flag with thirteen stars in a circle. Other flags and military accountrements strew the ground in front of and beside the central figure.

The frame is a 5 1/4-inch black-painted, scoop-molded example with applied, gilded decorations of corn husks (at the sight edge), ribbon and stick (inside the primary curve), and leaf-and-tongue (along the outermost edge). The frame is a replacement probably dating from the mid-nineteenth century (or possibly as late as the early 20th century). It may be a copy of the painting's original frame, being almost identical in style, for instance, to the original frame on Peale's portrait of John Dickinson at the Atwater Kent Museum in Philadelphia. For more observations on the frame, see the file notes of 12/6/1994 and 3/5/2000.
Label TextIn 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissioned a portrait of George Washington to honor him and the American victories he won during the Revolutionary War. The result was the original painting now hanging in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The picture, America’s first “state portrait,” was an immediate success. It served as the basis for Peale’s numerous nearly identical versions, including this example that hung for more than a hundred years at Shirley Plantation in Virginia.

Peale’s careful composition contains symbolic elements relating to the war and to Washington’s victorious leadership at the Battle of Princeton. The general stands with his hand resting on a canon, a powerful instrument of war. The British ensign flag lies fallen to one side on the ground, as do other captured flags. To the left is the Princeton battlefield with the debris of war, the marching of captured British soldiers, and college buildings.

InscribedInscribed in black paint at lower left, about 10 1/2-inches above the sight edge of the lower frame member: "Chas: WPeale ["W" and "P" in ligature] pinxt:/Philadelphia. 1780". (See detail photo in file for styles and configuration of the lettering, etc.)
ProvenanceThe painting is believed to have hung at Shirley, a Carter family plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, from the late eighteenth --- or at least the early nineteenth --- century until 1928, when it was bought from a Carter family descendant (Mrs. Marion Carter Oliver) by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who then gave it to CWF in 1933.

Exhibition(s)