• Fine Art
  • |
  • Video
  • |
  • June 10, 2015

What George Washington really looked like

In our ‘Game Changer’ series on art and objects that made a difference, specialist John A. Hays selects Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of General George Washington at Princeton

‘It’s loaded with iconography,’ says specialist John A. Hays of Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of George Washington after his victory at the Battle of Princeton in early 1777. Commissioned two years later with the view to celebrate and promote the American cause both at home and abroad, Peale selected this critical moment of the War as it powerfully evokes the triumph of the American forces in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Washington's victories at Trenton on December 26, 1776 and Princeton on January 3, 1777 came at a time when many, including the General himself, thought he was on the brink of defeat. During the preceding months, the American forces had suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the Battles of Long Island, White Plains and Fort Washington, leading them to abandon New York and, pursued by the British, retreat through New Jersey.


Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741-1827), George Washington at Princeton, 1779. Oil on canvas. Sold for: $21,296,000


At Trenton, with the enemy fast approaching, George Washington decided to station his troops on the western banks of the Delaware and so, on December 7, the army crossed the river, the first of four crossings that would be made that month, and joined newly arrived reinforcements from Pennsylvania. Among those was the artist Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), a lieutenant in a Philadelphia militia unit.

‘It was the first significant success Washington had. Winning that battle changed the course of the Revolution,’ says Hays, who chose the painting for our Game Changer series on art and objects that really made a difference. From despair to hope, the outlook of the Americans was transformed and hence, this moment of the War is known by historians as the ‘ten crucial days.’

‘This is what Washington really must have looked like,’ adds Hays. In Peale’s portrait, he says Washington is not idealised: ‘Look at his body — it looks like a sack of potatoes.’ In January 2006, the painting, titled George Washington at Princeton (1779), sold for $21,296,000 against a high estimate of $15 million.

Further revealing artefacts from the Revolutionary War are offered in the upcoming sale of The Collection of Charles Edward Sigety on 12 June, including a letter touching on the treatment of the Hessians captured by Washington at Trenton. Also in the sale are letters from George Washington, including one signed as ‘Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army’, dated June 1782, and a book from his library.

 


For more features, interviews and videos, visit Christie’s Daily

Recommended

  • WASHINGTON, George (1732-1799), President.... June 12 2015, New York Lot 88
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o... June 12 2015, New York Lot 89
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Partly printed document signed... June 12 2015, New York Lot 90
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Autograph letter signed (“G:o... June 12 2015, New York Lot 91
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Document signed (“G:o... June 12 2015, New York Lot 93
    More Information:
  • [WASHINGTON, George.] United States... June 12 2015, New York Lot 94
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o... June 12 2015, New York Lot 95
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Manuscript document signed... June 12 2015, New York Lot 96
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o... June 12 2015, New York Lot 97
    More Information:
  • [WASHINGTON, D.C.] GREENLEAF, James (1765-1843),... June 12 2015, New York Lot 98
    More Information:
  • WASHINGTON, George. Official Letters to the... June 12 2015, New York Lot 99
    More Information:
  • The Charles E. Sigety Collection June 12 2015, New York Sale 11610
    More Information: