Washington at Princeton

Washington At Princeton
Artist	Charles Wilson Peale
Year	1779
Medium	Oil on canvas
Subject	George Washington
Dimensions	236.2 x 148.6
Owner	Pennsylvania Academy Of The Fine Arts

Charles Willson Peale'sWashington at Princeton(on the right) sold for $21.5 million in 2005, the most ever paid in U.S. history for a portrait.

George Washington at the Battle of Princeton(1783)

Washington at Princetonis a 1779 painting byCharles Willson Peale,showingGeorge Washingtonafter theBattle of Princeton.The original was commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania for its council chamber inIndependence HallinPhiladelphia.Peale made eight copies of the painting. The original, now owned by thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,was completed in early 1779, when Washington sat for Peale in Philadelphia.

In January 2006, the painting sold for $21.3 million, the highest price ever paid for an American portrait at the time.(This record has since been broken by anAndy WarholportraitofMarilyn Monroe.) Six of the paintings are presently housed in U.S. institutions, including theUnited States Senate,theMetropolitan Museum of ArtinNew York City,theYale University Art GalleryinNew Haven, Connecticut,theNational Portrait GalleryinWashington, D.C.,Colonial Williamsburg,thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Artsin Philadelphia, andNassau HallatPrinceton University,where it is titledGeorge Washington after the Battle of Princeton.

Copies of 1779 painting

The success ofGeorge Washington at Princetonled 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 theYale University Art Gallery,Princeton University Art Museum,theMetropolitan Museum of Artin New York,Colonial Williamsburg,Virginia Museum of Fine ArtsandCleveland Museum of Art.

1783 painting

ThePrinceton University Art Museumdisplays another original Peale painting,George Washington at the Battle of Princeton,which was commissioned in 1783 by the Trustees of the College of New Jersey, which is nowPrinceton University,the year that Princeton University Faculty Room served as the temporary U.S. capital. 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.

• 
  Copy at Princeton University Art Museum
• 
  Copy at United States Senate
• 
  Copy at Yale University Art Gallery
• 
  Copy atPalace of Versailles
• 
  Three-quarter length copy atCleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Three-quarter length copy atCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art

External links

• Washington at PrincetonatPennsylvania Academy of Fine Artwebsite
• Washington at Princeton,U.S. Senatewebsite