| Treaty of Paris | |
|---|---|
 Treaty of Paris, byBenjamin West, 1783 (left to right:John Jay,John Adams,Benjamin Franklin,Henry Laurens, andWilliam Temple Franklin) | |
| Artist | Benjamin West |
| Year | 1783 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | History painting |
| Dimensions | 72.4 cm × 92.1 cm (28.5 in × 36.3 in) |
| Location | Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Winterthur,Delaware, US |
American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Agreement with Great Britain, also known as theTreaty of Paris, is anunfinished 1783 painting byBenjamin West depicting the United States delegation that negotiated the 1783Treaty of Paris, which formally ended theAmerican Revolutionary War. Peace negotiations began in Paris on June 25, 1783, and the eventual signing of the treaty took place on September 3, 1783 at the Hotel York at56 rue Jacob. The green drapery in the painting's background and the distant landscape with a classical colonnaded building emphasize the scene's formality.[1]
John Jay,John Adams,Benjamin Franklin,Henry Laurens, andWilliam Temple Franklin (presented from left to right) are depicted early during the negotiation process (Laurens and the younger Franklin were not present at the treaty's signing). Benjamin Franklin was the only U.S. delegate who did not pose in person; West drew his likeness from an engraving.[1]
Meant to be depicted on the right, the British delegation comprising representativeRichard Oswald and his secretary,Caleb Whitefoord, declined to pose. Britain had no desire to commemorate its defeat, and Oswald was reportedly ugly and blind in one eye and consequently reluctant to be depicted.[1] The conspicuous absence of the British commissioners evokes the "tentative nature of the peace" and the "deep geopolitical antagonisms" that persisted after the Revolution.[2] West never completed his painting. According toJohn Quincy Adams, West intended to present the painting as a gift to Congress.[3]
The painting, a gift ofHenry Francis du Pont, is in the permanent collection of theWinterthur Museum, Garden and Library, du Pont's former home in Winterthur,Delaware. Du Pont had purchased the work from theJ. P. Morgan collection in 1948.[4] The painting was displayed at theMetropolitan Museum of Art in 2016 as part of an exhibition on unfinished paintings.[3]
In 1983, to celebrate the bicentennial of the Treaty of Paris, theUnited States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp inspired by the painting. However, many details were changed: Laurens and William Franklin are removed, Jay now hunches over the table to Franklin's left, and the right side of the painting—unfinished in West's original—is filled in with the back of British signatoryDavid Hartley.[5] HistorianStanley Weintraub called the stamp "a travesty of history and a mischievous misuse of West's canvas."[6]
