Le Général Washington ne quid detrimenti capiat res publica

Le Général Washington ne quid detrimenti capiat res publica, 1780

After a painting by Jean Baptiste Le Paon (1738-1785) that was based on a 1779 portrait by Charles Willson Peale

Engraved by Noël Le Mire (1724-1801)

Engraving

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Coleman Perkins ’73, 2018.53.25

In this European engraving, which hangs in Washington Hall, General George Washington stands outside his tent holding the Declaration of Independence and the treaty of alliance with France, while torn copies of documents relating to reconciliation efforts by Great Britain lie at his feet. The print also includes an enslaved groomsman tending to a horse whom historians have suggested may be Washington’s valet William Lee.

Inspired by the talk of liberty and hopes of personal freedom, almost 6,000 Black Americans, free and enslaved, served during the war in the army and on American warships. As commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775, Washington initially refused to accept them into the ranks, He reversed this position because of the demands of war and thereafter led a racially integrated army.

Artist Jean Baptiste Le Paon based his figure of Washington on another military portrait of the general by Charles Willson Peale, commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania in 1779. In an era before photography and four-color reproductions, Peale replicated his painting of Washington after the Battle of Princeton several times because it was so well received. It was a copy of that painting that provided Europe with its first authentic likeness of America's leader.