George Washington, 1780
Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741–1827)
Oil on canvas; 95 x 61 3/4 in.
About the painting (from the Metropolitan Museum site):
On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council
of Pennsylvania passed a resolution commissioning
a portrait of George Washington for the
Council Chamber and selected Charles Willson Peale
as the artist. In preparation,
Peale traveled to the Princeton and
Trenton battlefields in February of 1779 to make
sketches for the background. The original portrait,
the full-length version now in the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts, was a tremendous success and Peale
completed numerous copies for royal palaces abroad,
each time updating the general's military dress.
This figure of George Washington was probably painted
between June and August of 1780. In every other version,
Washington is shown after the Battle of Princeton, but
here he is depicted after the Battle of Trenton, the
turning point of the war. It has been suggested that
this portrait was commissioned upon the order of
Mrs. Washington, because it is the only portrait
in which Washington wears his state sword and because
the painting descended in the Washington family.