The Soldier Who Painted Washington

James Peale, George Washington (ca. 1782).

James Peale wasn’t merely a painter of the American Revolution but a veteran of it, serving as a captain in the Continental Army from 1776 to 1779. He painted this Washington soon after the victory at Yorktown had effectively secured American independence. Peale had sketched the battlefield himself, and he built those details into the portrait: American and French colors rise behind Washington while the banners of the defeated British lie beneath him. The result is both portrait and national memory — Washington presented as both an individual and the commander of a young republic that had survived the improbable test of revolution.