Washington at Princeton

''Washington at Princeton'' is a 1779 painting by Charles Willson Peale, showing George Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The original was commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania for its council chamber in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Peale made eight copies of the painting. The original, now owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was completed in early 1779, when Washington sat for Peale in Philadelphia.

In January 2005, the painting sold for $21.3 million - setting a record for the highest price paid for an American portrait. Six of the paintings are in United States institutions including the United States Senate; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Yale University Art Gallery; National Portrait Gallery; Colonial Williamsburg; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and the Faculty Room in Nassau Hall at Princeton University (where it is titled ''George Washington after the Battle of Princeton'').

Copies of 1779 painting

The success of ''George Washington at Princeton'' led to orders for as many replicas of the painting. In August 1779 Peale wrote: “I have on hand a number of portraits of Gen. Washington. One the ambassador had for the Court of France, another is done for the Spanish Court, one other has been sent to the island of Cuba, and sundry others, which I have on hand are for private gentlemen.” Copies of the painting vary in size and background, but they all feature Washington in the same posture leaning on the cannon, with a horse and a soldier in the back. Some are full-length, as the original, and some are three-quarter length. Other versions reside at Princeton University Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Cleveland Museum of Art.

File:Washington-After-theBattle-of-Princeton-(1779-1782)-Peale.jpg, Copy at Princeton University Art Museum
File:George Washington at Princeton.jpg, Copy at United States Senate
File:George Washington at the Battle of Princeton by Charles Willson PealeFXD.jpg, Copy at Yale University Art Gallery
File:88-000339 Washington.jpg, Copy at Palace of Versailles
File:George Washington After the Battle of Princeton - Charles Willson Peale - Cleveland Museum of Art (29746887513).jpg, Three-quarter length copy at Cleveland Museum of Art
File:'George Washington' 1780-82 by Charles Willson Peale. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.jpg, Three-quarter length copy at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

1783 painting

The Princeton University Art Museum displays another original Peale painting entitled ''George Washington at the Battle of Princeton'' which was commissioned in 1783 by the Trustees of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), the year that the Faculty Room served as a temporary Capitol of the United States. That painting, which used to hang in the Faculty Room of Nassau Hall, is displayed in a frame (with crown removed) which previously contained a portrait of King George II, which had been hung in the very same room during the Battle of Princeton, and was damaged (decapitated) by a cannonball. The location of the two Peale portraits of Washington owned by Princeton University was swapped in 2015.Princeton University Art Museum
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References

External links

{{United States Capitol Complex

1770s paintings
Paintings by Charles Willson Peale
Paintings about the American Revolution
George Washington in art
Portraits of politicians
18th-century portraits
Flags in art
Horses in art
Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery