Miniature painting: Surrender at Yorktown

Date1785

Artist Louis-Nicholas Van Blarenberghe (1716-1794)

After work by Louis-Alexandre Berthier (1753 - 1815)

After work by Charles-Louis Berthier (1759 - 1783)

OriginEurope, France, Paris

MediumGouache on paper; gilt-metal frame

DimensionsFramed: 3 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2003-8,2

DescriptionThese meticulously rendered watercolors depict the Siege and Surrender of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War. Based on drawings by Alexandre and César Berthier, eye-witnesses to the battles and draftsmen under Rochambeau, each miniature measures only 3 1/8 inches in diameter and illustrates over 300 individual figures.
Label TextThis miniature painting (one of a pair) depicts the 1781 surrender of British troops to American and French forces at Yorktown, Virginia, a development that effectively ended the Revolutionary War. Few contemporary views of the event are known. Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe or his son Henri-Joseph painted this one and its mate in Paris in 1785. Both pictures were likely based on sketches by draftsmen Louis-Alexandre and Charles-Louis Berthier, brothers who served under the French General Rochambeau and were eyewitnesses to the surrender. The Berthier's sketches were sent to the French court where they were available to the van Blarenberghes. The painting shown here is just over three inches in diameter, but meticulously illustrates hundreds of individual figures.

(Taken from "Just Arrived" CW Journal)
InscribedSigned and dated: "van Blarenberghe 1785" on lower left of card.
ProvenanceS.J. Phillips, Ltd., London, 1973
Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann
Christie's London, April 2002, Lot. 752
Private Collector (sold to CWF via Robert Hunter)