| The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | John Trumbull |
| Year | 1819 (1819)–1820 (1820) |
| Type | Oil painting |
| Dimensions | 3.7 m × 5.5 m (12 ft × 18 ft) |
| Location | United States Capitol rotunda,Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Owner | United States |
TheSurrender of Lord Cornwallis is anoil painting byJohn Trumbull. The painting, which was completed in 1820, now hangs in therotunda of theUnited States Capitol inWashington, D.C.
The painting depicts the surrender ofBritish Lieutenant GeneralCharles, Earl Cornwallis atYorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, ending thesiege of Yorktown, which virtually guaranteed American independence. Included in the depiction are many leaders of the American troops that took part in the siege of Yorktown.
In October 1781, the successful siege ofYorktown, Virginia, byGeneral Washington in effect ended major fighting in the American Revolution. TheAmerican Army and allied forces defeated a British force there under Lord Charles Cornwallis, and on October 17, Cornwallis raised a flag of truce after having suffered not only the American attack but also disease, lack of supplies, inclement weather, and a failed evacuation.
ArtistJohn Trumbull (1756–1843) spent the early part of theAmerican Revolutionary War as a soldier, serving as an aide to bothGeorge Washington andHoratio Gates.[1] After resigning from the army in 1777, he pursued a career as an artist. In 1785 he began sketching out ideas for a series of large-scale paintings to commemorate the major events of theAmerican Revolution.[2] After spending a time in England, he returned toNew York City in 1789, where he sketched a number of dignitaries whose portraits he intended to use in these paintings.[3] In 1791 he traveled toYorktown, Virginia, where he sketched the landscape of the surrender site.[2]
Upon his return from Britain after the end of theWar of 1812, he promoted this idea to theUnited States Congress. On the strength of his application and the successful exhibition ofThe Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775 andThe Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775, as well as studies for other proposed paintings, the Congress in 1817 voted to commission four large paintings from him, to be hung in theUnited States Capitol rotunda.[2][4]
The price was set at $8,000 per painting, with the size and subject matter to be determined by PresidentJames Madison. A size of twelve by eighteen feet (370 cm × 550 cm) was agreed, as was the subject matter for the four paintings: theDeclaration of Independence, theSurrender of General Burgoyne, theSurrender of Lord Cornwallis, andGeneral George Washington Resigning His Commission. Trumbull spent the next eight years executing the commission, completing this painting in 1820. It was displayed inNew York City,Boston, andBaltimore before coming to Washington, D.C., and Trumbull supervised its hanging in the Capitol rotunda in late 1820.[2][4] It has remained there since.
Trumbull himself cleaned and varnished the painting in 1828, and it has been periodically maintained since. In 1971, damage from a penny that was thrown hard enough to pierce the canvas was repaired.[2] All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008.[2]
The subject of this painting is the surrender of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, which ended the last major campaign of the Revolutionary War. The blue sky filled with dark clouds and the broken cannon suggest the battles that led to this event. In early September, entrenched with a force of 7,000 men, Cornwallis had hoped for rescue from the sea, but the British vesselswere repelled by a French fleet. Within weeks General Washington had deployed a much larger army, and his artillery bombarded the British positions in early October. After American and French troops overran two British strongholds, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.[2]
In the center of the scene, American GeneralBenjamin Lincoln appears mounted on a white horse. He extends his right hand toward the sword carried by the surrendering British officer, GeneralCharles O'Hara, who heads the long line of troops that extends into the background. To the left, French officers appear standing and mounted beneath the white banner of the royal Bourbon family. On the right are American officers beneath the Stars and Stripes; among them are theMarquis de Lafayette and Colonel Jonathan Trumbull, the brother of the painter. GeneralGeorge Washington, riding a brown horse, stayed in the background because Cornwallis himself was not present for the surrender. TheComte de Rochambeau is on the left center on a brown horse.[2]
Burgoyne.
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromSurrender of Lord Cornwallis.Architect of the Capitol.%2c_by_John_Trumbull.jpg)
