The Passage of the Delaware

Thomas Sully was commissioned to paint a large historical oil of the dramatic moment during the American Revolution when George Washington surprised the garrison at Trenton on Christmas Eve in 1776. The huge canvas was completed between August 7 and December 15, 1819 but was rejected by the State of North Carolina as it was too large for the wall in the Capitol Building where it was intended to hang. Sully's register of paintings lists two studies for the painting, presently unlocated, but does not list this preliminary wash drawing which was clearly used for the final composition as it is squared for transfer. The oil is now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.