General Washington at Princeton
Charles Peale Polk·c. 1790
Historical Context
Charles Peale Polk's General Washington at Princeton, painted around 1790, depicts George Washington at the 1777 Battle of Princeton, one of the crucial early victories of the American Revolution. Polk was a nephew of Charles Willson Peale and adopted his uncle's commitment to documenting the new republic's heroes. His Washington portraits, based on Peale family prototypes, circulated widely in the early republic as patriotic icons.
Technical Analysis
Polk's oil-on-canvas technique renders the military portrait with the directness and somewhat stiff formal quality characteristic of American provincial painting. The figure of Washington follows established portrait types, with careful attention to military dress and commanding posture.
Provenance
Margaret Freeman Buckingham [1857-1946], Washington, D.C., and Cornwall, Pennsylvania; her nephew, William Coleman Freeman [1881-1955], Cornwall, Pennsylvania;[1] gift 1947 to NGA. [1] Freeman's dates are in _The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ 47 (New York, 1965), 193.
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