Washington before the Battle of Trenton

General George Washington at Trenton, 1796

Engraved by Thomas Cheesman after John Trumbull

Mezzotint engraving

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Coleman Perkins ’73, 2018.53.29

Washington posed for artist John Trumbull in Philadelphia, then the temporary capital of the United States. The year was 1792; it was 20 years after Washington sat at Mount Vernon for his first life portrait by Charles Willson Peale. By this time, the president was used to having his portrait painted.

Originally commissioned from Trumbull by the Charleston City Council for its city hall, the painting was meant to commemorate the president’s visit to Charleston, SC, in May 1791.The artist, who had served as Washington's second aide-de-camp during the Revolution, chose to depict the general in a dramatic moment on the evening before the pivotal Revolutionary War Battle of Trenton in late 1776. Trumbull described the sitting: "I told the President my object; he entered into it warmly, and, as the work advanced, we talked of the scene, its dangers, its almost desperation. He looked the scene again, and I happily transferred to the canvass, the lofty expression of his animated countenance, the high resolve to conquer or to perish." Trumbull considered the resulting painting one of his best, but the City of Charelton requested a less dramatic version, which Trumbull painted and delivered.

The original painting was gifted in 1806 to Yale Univesrity by the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, and a smaller version, also by Trumbull, is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Trumbull also worked in London with the British engraver Thomas Cheesman to produce a wood engraving of the painting. Chessman was an engraver and draughtsman who studied in the studio of Francesco Bartolozzi.

This print by Cheesmas after Trumbull's George Washington before the Battle of Trenton is currently on view in Washington Hall.