Images(3)

The British surrendering their Arms to Gen: Washington after their defeat at York Town in Virginia October 1781

Date1823

After work by John Francis Renault (d. 1824)

Engraver Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Co.

Engraver William Allen (1784 - 1868)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumLine engraving with etching on laid paper

DimensionsOH: 24 7/8" x OW: 33 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1986-122

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "The British surrendering their Arms to Gen: Washington after their defeat at York Town in Virginia October 1781/ Drawn by John Francis Renault/ Engraved by Tanner, Vallance, Kearney Co. and W.m Allen/ TO THE DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, THIS PRINT IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THEIR FELLOW CITIZEN, J.n F.cis Renault, Assistant Secretary to the Count de Grass and Engineer to the French Army, at the Seige of York/ Entered according to Act of Congress the 28th day of January, 1819."

The officers are identified by name in the lower margin: Lincoln, Rochambeau, Hamilton, Washington, Knox, De Lauzen, Nelson, La Fayette, Tarleton, Cornwallis, Abercrombie, O'Hara, Symmonds, Dundas, Chewton
Label TextThough the artist John Francis Renault first began collecting subscriptions to publish his drawing entitled “The Siege of York; or, The British Surrendering their Arms to General Washington, After their Defeat at Yorktown, In the Month of October, 1781” around 1800, but the print was not actually completed until 1823. Renault claimed to have been present at the battle, though it is possible he served with the French forces, this assertion has not been substantiated. Renault, who was likely of French descent, fled Saint Domingue during the Haitian Revolution and moved to New York City by 1794. Around 1800, he was living in Petersburg, Virginia, where he began advertising his intentions to publish a drawing of the surrender at Yorktown. A preparatory drawing by Renault of this scene is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

Based on his own advertisements and newspapers he solicited the work for a subscription price of $12 from Norfolk, to Richmond, and Washington, DC --- perhaps travelling to Baltimore and parts of North Carolina. When the print had yet to be published in 1815, newspaper editors began to publish notices claiming that he was scam artist who never intended to publish the work. In 1818, he finally arranged for the firm of Tanner, Vallance, Kearny, & Co. to undertake the engraving of the plate. The partnership engraved the copper plate and deposited a proof with the Library of Congress in December of 1819. The copper plate for the Siege at York was finally complete, but financial difficulties caused the partnership to dissolve a month later (Colonial Williamsburg owns the original copper plate engraved by Tanner, Vallance, Kearny, & Co. see acc. no. 1976-63, 1&2). Renault died in Phialdelphia in 1823. Later that year, Benjamin Tanner, who was a partner in Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Co., finally published the print, along with a map of the Yorktown battlefield by Renault (a copy of the 1782 map by Sebastian Bauman, see acc. no. 2017-242).

Renault took many liberties in his semi-allegorical portrayal of the events at Yorktown in October 1781. In his prospectus, Renault described the print in three scenes. The first scene depicts Goddess of America, who meets the, “chariot of Pride, Ambition, Envy, and Folly, whom she blasts with her lightning, and annihilates.” On the left a monument stands to the Heroes of the American Revolution displaying an urn inscribed with the names of notables like Benjamin Franklin. The urn is surrounded by the goddesses:"Peace holding an olive branch; Justice with scales and sword; and Plenty with a cornucopiae[sic]." And finally, he depicted the figure of Genius holding the Constitution.The foreground depicts the principal officers that he claimed were present at the surrender with their names listed below them to identify them. General Cornwallis (who was not present at the surrender) hands the sword to Lafayette, but the Duc de Lauzan gestures towards George Washington, “the only person to whom he can surrender the sword.”