Washington before Yorktown

1824, reworked 1825

Rembrandt Peale

Painter, American, 1778 - 1860

A man wearing a military uniform and riding a horse gestures in front of a small band of soldiers in this vertical painting. All the men have pale skin and wear navy-blue and flax-yellow uniforms. The central man, George Washington, and the cream-white horse he rides take up most of the composition. The horse has a glossy black mane and tail, and black hooves. The horse stands with its body facing our right in profile, one front leg lifted, but it turns its head to look off to our left with clear brown eyes. There is a scarlet-red blanket under the fawn-brown saddle. Washington also turns his head to our left to look up and off in that direction. He has a high forehead, a beaked nose, and his thin pink lips are pressed in a line. He has ruddy cheeks, a dimpled chin, and jowls along his jawline. His white hair is streaked with gray, and it sweeps back from his high forehead and bushes out over each ear. His blue jacket has gold epaulets, a high yellow collar around a white neckerchief, and gold-colored buttons down the front. The uniform also has yellow lapels, cuffs, and knee-high britches. The toe of his knee-high black boots pushes against the horse’s stirrup. Washington holds his right arm, to our left, out and points down with a gloved hand, which also holds a black, tricorn hat. The nearest man, just behind Washington to our left, rides a chestnut-brown horse. He is cleanshaven with blond hair, and looks at Washington, one hand tucked behind his lower back, where his hat rests on the horse’s rump. Several more men ride together under a grove of trees to our left, and the final rider lurches forward on a horse whose two front legs are raised midstride, to our right of Washington. The dirt ground beneath has some scrubby grass and a few plants. Tall, leafy green trees stretch to the sky to either side of the painting. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, on a rock. It reads, “Remt. Peale.”

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Rembrandt Peale's Washington before Yorktown--one of the few life-size portraits of George Washington on horseback and only the second such depiction by an American artist—is a heroic portrayal of the father of the United States. The three-week siege of Yorktown occurred in early autumn 1781, near the end of the Revolutionary War. At that time Washington controlled 14,000 troops from the Continental Army and the French Expeditionary Force, under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette and the Comte de Rochambeau, as well as 24 warships under the Comte de Grasse.

Astride his restless white horse, Washington turns toward the Marquis de Lafayette and three other mounted officers: Henry Knox, Benjamin Lincoln, and Rochambeau. Alexander Hamilton gallops off to the right to execute the general's orders. Washington is presented as a man of action and decisiveness, commanding the completion of essential defensive trenches. His mature facial features show him not at age 49, as he would have been at Yorktown, but as he appeared near the end of his life. The background further distinguishes Washington from his companions: they are shown against a leafy green landscape, but he is set against the radiant sky, which complements the lofty portrayal of his features.

The large mullein plant in the foreground plays an important role in the painting. Also known as Aaron's rod, this medicinal herb was used to treat various physical ailments and, according to folklore, to cast out evil spirits. Peale included it as a symbol of Washington's character in his ambitious portrayal of the military leader preparing to vanquish George III's English forces.

Peale created this commanding painting in the hope that the United States Congress would purchase it to hang in the Capitol Rotunda. His ambition was never realized, and the work remained in the possession of his heirs until they donated it to George Washington's Mount Vernon in 1873. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association lent the painting to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1902 and donated it to that museum in 1944. It entered the Gallery's collection, along with many other works from the Corcoran, in 2014.

On View

NGA, West Building, M-100, S

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Estate of the artist; bequeathed 1873 to Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, Mount Vernon, Virginia; gift 1944 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1825

  • Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States, Washington, January 1825.

  • Peale Museum, Baltimore, 16 May - 30 June 1825.

  • Peale's New York Museum, c. November 1825, no. 210.

1827

  • New England Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, Boston, 23-28 May 1827.

1837

  • Peale Painting Room, Philadelphia, c. 30 October 1837, no. 1.

1858

  • United States Capitol, Washington, April 1858- March 1873.

1902

  • Long term loan from Mount Vernon Ladies Association, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1902-1944.

1949

  • Long term loan, George Washington National Masonic Temple, Alexandria, Virginia, 1949-1963.

1966

  • Past and Present:: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist.

1976

  • Corcoran [The American Genius], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, no checklist.

1996

  • The Peale Family: Creation of an American Legacy, 1770-1870, Philadelphia Museum of Art; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1996-1997, unnumbered checklist (shown only in Washington).

2008

  • The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

2011

  • Staiti, Paul. "Rembrandt Peale, Washington before Yorktown." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 74-75, 257-258, repro.

  • Bellion, Wendy. Citizen Spectator: Art, Illusion, and Visual Perception in Early National America. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2011: xii, 298, repro.

2014

  • "The Corcoran Gallery of Art - A New Beginning." American Art Review 16, no. 2 (March-April 2014): 140-141, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Remt. Peale

Wikidata ID

Q46626818

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