Washington before Yorktown

Rembrandt Peale

National Gallery of Art

A man wearing a military uniform and riding a horse gestures in front of a small band of soldiers in this vertical painting. All the men have pale skin and wear navy-blue and flax-yellow uniforms. The central man, George Washington, and the cream-white horse he rides take up most of the composition. The horse has a glossy black mane and tail, and black hooves. The horse stands with its body facing our right in profile, one front leg lifted, but it turns its head to look off to our left with clear brown eyes. There is a scarlet-red blanket under the fawn-brown saddle. Washington also turns his head to our left to look up and off in that direction. He has a high forehead, a beaked nose, and his thin pink lips are pressed in a line. He has ruddy cheeks, a dimpled chin, and jowls along his jawline. His white hair is streaked with gray, and it sweeps back from his high forehead and bushes out over each ear. His blue jacket has gold epaulets, a high yellow collar around a white neckerchief, and gold-colored buttons down the front. The uniform also has yellow lapels, cuffs, and knee-high britches. The toe of his knee-high black boots pushes against the horse’s stirrup. Washington holds his right arm, to our left, out and points down with a gloved hand, which also holds a black, tricorn hat. The nearest man, just behind Washington to our left, rides a chestnut-brown horse. He is cleanshaven with blond hair, and looks at Washington, one hand tucked behind his lower back, where his hat rests on the horse’s rump. Several more men ride together under a grove of trees to our left, and the final rider lurches forward on a horse whose two front legs are raised midstride, to our right of Washington. The dirt ground beneath has some scrubby grass and a few plants. Tall, leafy green trees stretch to the sky to either side of the painting. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, on a rock. It reads, “Remt. Peale.”