Ten Facts About Battle of Princeton-- Part 8: The George Washington at Princeton Painting

10.  THE GEORGE WASHINGTON AT PRINCETON  PAINTING WAS WILDLY POPULAR AFTER ITS DEBUT

The news of George Washington's victory at Princeton electrified the country and doing his painting became the desire of leading artists of the day.

George Willson Peale, Washington's most frequent portraitist and a Continental Army veteran who was at Princeton, finished his George Washington at Princeton painting in early 1779.  The painting had been commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania for its council chambers at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

After its debut, there was a great clamor for replicas.  It is estimated that Peale created 18 or more different replicas of the painting for clients such as the Spanish Court, the island of Cuba and King Louis XVI.  Today, replicas can be found at  Princeton University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Colonial Williamsburg,  the Museum of Virginia Fine Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the U.S. Senate.

Each of these  copies employs different-sized  canvases, updated uniforms, varied backgrounds and other modifications.

--CootPeale