Rembrandt Peale

Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778–1860), Washington before Yorktown, 1824, reworked 1825
Oil on canvas, 349.25 × 306.07 cm (137 1/2 × 120 1/2 in.), National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, Mount Vernon, Virginia, 1944), 2014.136.64.

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.