LONG ISLAND’S BEST 2017 RESOURCES
Mort Künstler, Reading the Declaration of Independence to the Troops [detail]. © 1977 Mort Künstler, Inc.
Mort Künstler: The New Nation
December 10, 2016 – April 2, 2017
ARTWORK IMAGES
EXHIBITION LABELS
These exhibition labels and artwork images for the exhibition
Mort Künstler: The New Nation are to be used for
educational purposes in coordination with the high school
student exhibition Long Island’s Best: Young Artists at The
Heckscher Museum 2017.
Description
2 Prime Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
631.351.3250
www.heckscher.org
Education Department
631.351.3214
[email protected]
Introduction
Mort Künstler has focused
reveal the noble character of the American people. Although most acclaimed for his depictions of the
Civil War, Künstler began his career in the 1950s as a prolific illustrator for popular magazines like
and The Saturday Evening Post, Sports Afield and Outdoor Life
adventure magazines, such as True, Argosy, Stag, For Men Only, Male, Adventure, and Saga. In
dramatic images of courage and physical prowess, Künstler captured the spirit of the male psyche in
the post-War years, while honing his skills in managing complex multi-figured compositions and
isolating decisive moments.
He created book covers and interior illustrations for paperbacks and
several issues of Classics Illustrated, as well as advertisements and movie posters, most notably for
the action-packed disaster film The Poseidon Adventure.
In 1982, Künstler received a commission from CBS-TV for a painting depicting a scene from the Civil
War for their mini-series The Blue and the Gray
c
factual accuracy and emotional depth. The Civil War works have been widely exhibited and reproduced
in publications that create a visual record of one o
earning the artist numerous honors and the accolades of leading Civil War historians, such as Henry
Steele Commager, James McPherson, and James I. Robertson, Jr.
The New Nation
project. In these works, he traces the dramatic story of the
birth of the United States from settlement through the Revolutionary War, to the establishment of our
ng key
moments in the War of Independence in drawings, sketches, and paintings that reveal his creative
process, Künstler conveys the desperate struggle, fortitude, and dignity of the citizens who founded
our country 240 years ago.
The Guns of Monmouth, 2013
Mixed media, 15-1/2 x 21 in.
The Battle of Monmouth was a close-fought attack
orchestrated by General Washington as the British
Army attempted to evacuate Philadelphia to relocate
their troops to their primary base in New York in 1778.
On June 18, the British Army began a long march
across New Jersey to board ship transports at Sandy
Hook. Recognizing an opportunity to strike a blow at the
retreating enemy, Washington ordered pursuit and
caught up with the British rear guard, commanded by
Lord Charles Cornwallis, at Monmouth Court House on
June 28. In the ensuing battle, Washington’s
commanding presence compelled the American patriots to fight the redcoats to a standstill. Alexander
Hamilton declared that “America owes a great deal to General Washington for this day’s work… By
his own presence, he brought order out of confusion, animated his troops and led them to success.”
Though the battle ended in a draw and the British escaped to New York, the Continental Army had
demonstrated the military prowess and fortitude that eventually gained American independence in
the Revolutionary War.
The New World, Jamestown, Va., May 14,
1607, 2006, Oil on canvas
26 x 42 in.
In December of 1606, three ships under a
charter held by the Virginia Company of
London—the Discovery, the Godspeed, and
the Susan Constant—departed London to
establish a colony in the new world. They
landed on the coast of North America on April
26, 1607 at a place they named Cape Henry,
planting a cross to stake a claim for England.
As Künstler has depicted, the first men ashore probably placed two flags—the ancient English Cross
of St. George and the Union Jack, which combined the Cross of St. George and the Scottish Cross
of St. Andrew, symbolizing the union of Great Britain. Musketeers bearing matchlock muskets
protected the landing zone from attack by natives. The colonists moved upriver in search of a more
secure location, and in May 1607 began exploring an outlet of the Chesapeake Bay they called the
James River, dubbing the peninsula there Jamestown Island. Over 100 men (of 144 who had
embarked) survived the journey from London, and they built a fort at Jamestown, which served as the
capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699.
Portóla Discovers San Francisco Bay,
November 4, 1769, 1987
Oil on canvas
34 x 50 in.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, colonial
expansion and settlement of North America was
disrupted by disputes between the European
powers and between Europe and the indigenous
Native American populations. Spain, in decline as
a world power by then, had originally endeavored
to spread their influence from the East coast to the
Pacific. After Monterey Bay was discovered in 1602, however, the Spanish lost interest in the west
coast. Not until 1768, fearing Russian expansion, did Spain reassert its presence in California.
The Spanish governor of California, Gaspar de Portolá, left San Diego in 1769 on an expedition to
establish a base at the Port of Monterey to strengthen Spain’s military influence in the region.
Inaccurately informed that Monterey was a harbor, the Spanish failed to recognize the locale and
continued north past by their intended destination. They reached the city of Pacifica on October 31,
and the following day, on a scouting tour of the area, Sergeant José Ortega and his men climbed
Sweeny Ridge and spotted San Francisco Bay, which they immediately recognized as an important
potential seaport.
First Legislative Assembly
1986, Gouache on board
12 x 14 in.
Early in 1619, the Virginia Company of London, which
had established the Jamestown settlement in 1607,
directed the Governor of Virginia, George Yeardley, to
develop a “General Assembly” elected by the settlers.
Twenty-two representatives were chosen from the 11
boroughs in Jamestown, and they were referred to as the
House of Burgesses.
On July 30, 1619, the colony’s leading men—the House
of Burgesses and a governor’s council—along with
Governor Yeardley, met for six days to establish a
government for Virginia and to create laws that would form the foundation for a productive society.
They established protocol on Native American relations and personal affairs, in addition to laws
against drunkenness, idleness, and gambling. The assembly also approved its first tax law, requiring
every man and servant in the colony to pay the officers of the assembly in tobacco (a cash crop in
Virginia) for their services. This constituted the first legislative assembly in North America, laying the
precedent for representative government.
The Mayflower Compact, Plymouth Colony,
November 11, 1620, 1985
Gouache on board
11-7/8 x 14 in.
In early November 1620, fifteen months after the
Jamestown Assembly, another assembly convened
at Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts.
That year, the Mayflower had sailed to America with
102 passengers, which made up two groups of
settlers: the Pilgrims, or Separatists as they were
called, who originally fled from England to Holland to
avoid religious persecution and now sought religious
freedom in the New World; and the “strangers,” as the
Pilgrims referred to the merchants, craftsman, skilled workers, servants, and others who sought
opportunity in the new world.
The voyage was organized by the Pilgrims, who had originally intended to settle somewhere near the
mouth of the Hudson River on land claimed by the Virginia Company. Rough seas pulled the ship off
course, and Captain Christopher Jones decided to pull ashore as quickly as possible on sighting land
at Cape Cod on November 9. Dissension immediately arose between the Pilgrims and the “strangers,”
the latter arguing that because they landed outside the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, they did
not have to obey its rules and regulations. Recognizing that they would not be able to realize their
unique endeavor without some sort of agreement, the colonists met while still at sea on November
11 in present-day Provincetown Harbor. Their deliberations resulted in the Mayflower Compact, which
in time would form a foundation of civil government in the United States. The compact bound its
signers into a body politic and pledged them to abide by any laws and regulations that would
subsequently be established “for the general good of the colony.”
Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, 2013
Oil on canvas
11-3/8 x 10 in.
As the colonies expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries,
sources of tension arose between the settlers and the
government in Great Britain. American anger grew as
Parliament imposed taxes and control in the colonies, and in
1768 British soldiers took up posts in Boston to enforce royal
rule. By 1770, skirmishes between soldiers and civilians were
breaking out all over the city. On the evening of March 5, a
dispute outside the Customs House between townspeople and
a British sentry intensified when the British Captain Thomas
Preston arrived with soldiers to reinforce the sentry. A crowd
assembled and civilians taunted, spit on, and finally started
throwing debris at the soldiers, who opened fire without
Preston’s order. Three Americans were killed—including a runaway slave of African and Native
American descent named Crispus Attucks—and two others were mortally wounded.
In the weeks that followed, a propaganda battle ensued between the colonists and the British. Both
sides sought to influence public opinion—patriots referring to the incident as a “bloody massacre” and
the British as an “unhappy disturbance.” Paul Revere circulated an exaggerated engraving of the
event that he copied from an illustration by the young Boston artist Henry Pelham, which presented
the incident as a deliberate attack. The Boston Massacre played a significant role on the road to
Revolution, helping ignite Americans’ desire for independence.
Boston Tea Party
December 16, 1773, 2013
Oil on canvas
16 x 12 in.
In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the
British East India Company to ship tea directly to the
colonies, simultaneously bypassing American middlemen
and forcing the colonists to pay taxes on British tea. The
colonists argued for their rights; they proclaimed “No
taxation without representation,” believing that they should
not have to pay taxes as they were not represented in
Parliament. The Tea Act also enabled the East India
Company to create a monopoly on the tea trade, and the
colonists feared that this would extend to other goods as
well. The arrival in Boston of British ships loaded with tea
finally drove the protesters to action.
On December 16, patriot Samuel Adams assembled a
meeting of colonists at the Old South Meeting House, after which many protesters—some dressed
as Mohawk Indians to disguise their identities—climbed aboard the British ships. In a powerful
statement of defiance, they dumped the crates of tea overboard. It is unknown whether Adams directly
organized the dissent, but he was quick to defend the protesters’ actions.
Two, If by Sea, 2013, Oil on board
16 x 12 in.
In the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party, the city was quickly
occupied by 3,000 British troops to restore royal authority in the
colony. General Thomas Gage, the military governor of
Massachusetts and commander-in-chief of the British military
forces in Boston, attempted to avoid conflict by disarming the
colonists, who had stockpiled weapons in Concord, and
imprisoning the patriot leaders, Samuel Adams and John
Hancock.
On April 18, 1775, courier Paul Revere was instructed to ride to
Lexington to warn the patriot leaders and militia that the British
were coming. In the preceding days, Revere had also planned
“that if the British went out by Water, we would show two
Lanthorns in the North Church Steeple; and if by Land, one, as a
Signal; for we were apprehensive it would be difficult to Cross the
Charles River, or git over Boston neck.” The Old North Church with its 191-foot steeple was among
the most visible structures in Boston. The sexton, Robert Newman, carried two lanterns up the church
steeple as British troops left Boston and rowed to Cambridge.
Intended as a backup plan in case a mounted messenger—Paul Revere—could not deliver the
information, the signal was unnecessary; however, it became an iconic moment of the start of the
Revolutionary War, immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride”
(1860), in which the poet coined the phrase “one if by land, two if by sea.”
“The Regulars Are Coming Out!”, Lexington,
Mass., April 19, 1775, 2013
Oil on board
11-1/2 x 15-1/2 in.
Paul Revere and his so-called “mechanics”—local
Boston patriots who set up the first organized
intelligence network in American history—were
instrumental in providing information regarding
potential British moves against the militia in order to
protect leading patriots such as John Hancock and
Samuel Adams. Revere was a principal courier for
the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the
Massachusetts Committee of Safety, and his Lexington ride, preserved by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow in his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1860), transformed the Bostonian into a national symbol
of freedom.
On the night of April 18, Revere and another “mechanic,” shoemaker Henry Dawes, received word of
an imminent British movement and set out to alert patriots that the redcoats were coming. (His actual
cry was believed to be “The regulars are coming out!”) After a close call with two British officers,
Revere reached Lexington and was able to warn Hancock and Adams to flee just ahead of the British.
As the patriot leaders departed, Revere and Dawes raced on to alert the militia at Concord. After
another run-in with the redcoats, Revere returned to Lexington to retrieve a trunk of important papers
Hancock had left behind, and riding off with the trunk, Revere heard the first shots of the Revolutionary
War.
North Bridge, Concord, Mass., April 19, 1775,
2013
Mixed media, 9-3/4 x 13-1/2 in.
At dawn on April 19, the British reached Lexington, but
were met by patriot militiamen who had been warned
of their imminent arrival by Paul Revere. The patriots
stood their ground in an effort to stop the British
advance to Concord, but the British troops overcame
the militia and marched west. Learning of the conflict
in Lexington, the militia in Concord headed east to aid
their fellow patriots. Along the way, they met 700
British soldiers lead by General Thomas Gage.
Dangerously outnumbered, they retreated slowly,
crossing the North Bridge to a small hill north of Concord.
While the British searched for weapons and stray patriots, more militia assembled. Soon more than
400 Americans were positioned opposite the North Bridge, where the British posted a light infantry
company of nearly 100 soldiers. After debating whether to take advantage of their superior numbers,
the American militia advanced over the bridge. Men fell on both sides and the British realized they
would soon be defeated. The redcoats withdrew, but in the brief battle, they had fired what Ralph
Waldo Emerson later called, in his poem “Concord Hymn” (1837), the “shot heard round the world.”
Fife and Drum, 2013
Mixed media
17-1/2 x 17-1/2 in.
The Continental Congress, which served as the governing
body of the thirteen colonies during the Revolution,
appointed George Washington to command the
Continental Army in June 1775. A brilliant military leader,
he realized that success rested on his ability to unite
soldiers from the disparate colonies, including
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. To win the
war, Washington knew he needed disciplined troops who
were attentive to the commands of officers and capable of
maneuvering together in the field.
He began the training regimen with seemingly simple
protocol that provided much-needed structure and stability. When officers passed sentries and
guards, for example, Washington dictated that “[t]he Commander in Chief is to be received with rested
Arms; the Officer to salute, and the Drums to beat a march: The Majors General with rested Arms,
the Officer to salute and the Drums to beat two Ruffles; The Brigadiers General with rested Arms, the
Officer to salute and the Drums to beat one Ruffle.”
Signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776,
1986
Gouache on board, 11-1/2 x 14 in.
After the patriots secured Boston, they knew the British
would target New York. From the end of June through
August 12, a British armada amassed in New York Harbor,
comprising the largest amphibious force in the history of the
British Empire—almost 400 ships bearing 32,000 troops.
On July 2, redcoats swarmed ashore on Staten Island,
occupying it without a fight. That same day, in Philadelphia,
the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of
Independence.
The Declaration was a unique act of astonishing defiance in the face of King George’s determination
to restore colonial rule in North America. The delegates knew that a massive British armada was at
their door, but two days later they began signing their names to the revolutionary document. With
each signature, the British ships in New York Harbor become more impotent and irrelevant.
Reading the Declaration of Independence to the
Troops, July 9, 1776, 1975
Oil on canvas, 28 x 38 in.
Courtesy of the National Park Service, Federal Hall
National Memorial
The President of Congress, John Hancock, instructed
General Washington to share the Declaration with his
army. On the morning of July 9, General Orders
proclaimed that “[t]he General hopes this important
Event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer,
and soldier, to act with Fidelity and Courage, as
knowing that now the peace and Safety of his Country
depends (under God) solely on the success of our arms.” That evening at 6:00 pm, thousands of
Continental Army troops stationed around New York City assembled at the parade grounds in Lower
Manhattan (near present-day City Hall) to hear the Declaration of Independence read by their
commanding officers. Afterwards, crowds in many cities destroyed signs and statues representing
royal rule, including an equestrian statue of King George III that stood in Bowling Green Park in
Manhattan. Washington and Congress hoped that the Declaration would motivate the soldiers and
encourage others to join the fight against Britain.
First Rhode Island, 2013
Oil on canvas
12 x 16 in.
In the winter of 1778, as Rhode Island struggled to meet
their quotas for the army, General James Varnum,
commander of the Rhode Island regiment, suggested
that George Washington enlist slaves to fill the ranks. On
February 14, 1778, the Rhode Island assembly voted to
allow "every able-bodied negro, mulatto, or Indian man
slave [sic] in this state to enlist into either of the
Continental Battalions being raised.”
Although General Washington initially opposed the inclusion of African Americans in the Continental
Army—he feared that arming blacks might provoke a slave rebellion—they continued to serve
throughout the war. The First Rhode Island Regiment created in 1778 became known as the “Black
Regiment,” referring to its several troops of African-American soldiers. While regarded as the first
African-American military regiment, its ranks were not exclusively so. Washington grew to tolerate the
fully-integrated black troops, who may have constituted up to ten percent of the army by 1781. His
experience with their bravery and patriotism may have contributed to his later decision to free his
slaves in his final will and testament.
“Fire!”, 2013, Mixed media, 16 x 22-1/2 in.
On September 19 and October 7, 1777, British General
John Burgoyne and his German troops fought two major
battles against the Continental General Horatio Gates at
Loyalist John Freeman’s farm near Saratoga, New York.
Thanks, in part, to the heroism and leadership of men like
Daniel Morgan, Benedict Arnold, and Gates, the battles
ended in disaster for the British. Burgoyne surrendered his
entire army on October 17. The Continental army’s victory
at Saratoga led directly to French support of the American
cause in early 1778, ultimately changing the course of the
war.
“Move the Guns Up!”, 2013
Oil on board, 16-3/4 x 12 in.
Following the Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts in June 1775,
the Americans and the British had settled into a stalemate.
Although the Americans heavily outnumbered the redcoats, the
British defenses around Boston seemed impenetrable. After
Washington and his officers exhausted their ideas, a Boston
bookseller named Henry Knox and the clever Colonel Rufus
Putnam concocted a plan for the Continental army.
Knox suggested transporting the heavy artillery that had been
captured at Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775 to Washington’s camp
at Cambridge. Washington and his officers deployed the cannon
on Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston and its harbor, in plain
sight of the enemy. Although the idea seemed implausible,
Colonel Putnam proposed constructing wooden fortifications for
the protection of the guns beforehand. On the morning of March
5, 1776, British General William Howe awoke to find his army helpless against the well-protected
American guns, exclaiming, “The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have
done in a month.” Within two weeks, the British had abandoned Boston, moving south to New York.
Washington's Crossing, 2011
Oil on canvas
33 x 50 in.
After the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, the threat of the British armada
still loomed in New York Harbor. Before long,
Washington evacuated his troops from Long
Island and soon the Continental Army began
withdrawing from Manhattan as well. EnglishAmerican writer and political activist Thomas
Paine, endeavored to articulate the patriots’
anguish, yet keep them focused on the quest for
victory. His sixteen-part work The American
Crisis (1776-83) began:
These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot
will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW,
deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph.
Paine’s words boosted the morale of the Continental Army who eagerly followed Washington across
the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 in a surprise attack on the German forces at Trenton,
New Jersey. The crossing was treacherous, with the boats dodging floating ice as they maneuvered
through a storm of sleet and snow. Although a few bands of troops did not make it across, the Battle
of Trenton was swift and effective, and the entire German garrison was captured.
In 2011, Künstler ignited a media firestorm when he painted Washington’s Crossing, which is a truer
representation of the event than Emanuel Leutze’s iconic Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Unlike Leutze’s heroic, romanticized
image, Künstler depicts Washington on a sixty-foot-long flatboat ferry in a blinding snowstorm, more
accurately presenting the factual record.
Washington at Valley Forge
1985, Gouache/board
13 1/2 x 14 in.
Following the British victory at Saratoga in the autumn
of 1777, many began to question Washington’s
leadership of the Continental Army. As a result,
Washington decided to move his army into winter
quarters at Valley Forge on December 19, foregoing
the traditional practice of wintering in town with easy
access to food, shelter, and civilian companionship.
Valley Forge was a rural area with a few farmhouses,
but it allowed Washington to continue to contest
British control of the countryside around Philadelphia.
Food supplies began running out on the very day the
army reached its new encampment, and the soldiers,
already frustrated by the prospect of an
uncomfortable winter in the country, launched a furious demonstration. Washington promised to
remedy the situation, but he feared their trust and obedience would not last long. Without some
change he warned Congress, “this army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three
things: Starve—dissolve—or disperse.” In time, Washington’s persistent appeals on behalf of his
men’s welfare created a powerful bond between him, his officers, and soldiers that ultimately secured
democracy in the United States.
Sally’s Valentine, 2013
Oil on canvas
12 x 16 in.
In the winter of 1778-79, a Loyalist unit called the
Queen’s Rangers, under the command of
Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, camped in
Oyster Bay, Long Island. Simcoe took up quarters in
the merchant Samuel Townsend’s house, the
Homestead (now known as Raynham Hall). While
boarding there, Simcoe was said to have taken a
liking to Townsend’s nineteen-year-old daughter
Sarah, or “Sally.”
According to legend, some time that winter Simcoe wrote a Sally a valentine, including a pair of hearts
with their initials pierced by an arrow. The poem inside began: “Fairest Maid where all are fair,
Beauty’s pride and Nature’s care; To you my heart I must resign; O Choose me for your Valentine!”
Sally, irritated at Simcoe’s decision to cut down her father’s apple orchard, spurned her suitor and
sent him away. As an avowed patriot, she might have also passed along intelligence on the Queen’s
Rangers to the American spies who were plentiful in the area.
Believed to be America’s first recorded valentine, Sally reportedly kept the card until the end of her
life in 1842, as it is said to have been among her possessions when she died. Künstler, a resident of
Oyster Bay for over fifty years, was keenly aware of both the role the town had played in the American
Revolution and his own proximity to this historic site, just minutes from his home.
The Culper Spy Ring, 2013
Oil on canvas
12 x 14 in
George Washington recognized the value of spy craft.
His most famous espionage was executed by the
Culper Spy Ring—also known as the Setauket Spy
Ring—which operated between Manhattan and Long
Island to provide intelligence about British troop and
ship movements in and around the city. The two lead
spies hailed from the North Shore of Long Island:
Abraham Woodhull of Setauket, who signed his
intelligence reports as “Samuel Culper” or “Samuel
Culper, Sr.,” and Robert Townsend, who usually
signed his reports as “Samuel Culper, Jr.” Townsend
was a merchant from Oyster Bay, who operated from
his dry goods firm in Manhattan, and his father, Samuel, was a member of the New York Provincial
Congress. Samuel’s house in Oyster Bay, known as the Homestead (eventually renamed Raynham
Hall), was taken over by British officers in 1778. This painting shows Robert Townsend reading an
encrypted letter during a visit to the Homestead. To conceal their messages, spies often used an
invisible ink that could be developed with a chemical agent.
A neighbor of Raynham Hall, Künstler visited the room Townsend had used, which has been restored
to its colonial appearance. The Culper Spy Ring remained secret for more than 150 years, until its
existence was discovered by the historian Morton Pennypacker in the late 1930s. Local tours following
the footsteps of the Culper Spy Ring are held in Setauket.
The Scout, 2013
Oil on board
12 x 10 in.
For the first few years of the Revolutionary War, Washington
had been too preoccupied with events in the east to pay much
attention to the frontier. That changed in the winter of 177879 as Iroquois Indians and Loyalists inflicted such
devastating raids in western New York that the state
government seemed on the verge of collapse. In February
1779, Congress called for Washington to order a military
expedition for the “chastisement of the savages.” That
summer, he sent General John Sullivan with a division of
Continental troops to ravage and destroy Iroquois
settlements. Although few Iroquois were killed or captured,
much of their land and more than 40 settlements were devastated on the Sullivan Expedition, and the
Iroquois relocated to Canada seeking British protection.
Hand to Hand, 2013
Oil on board
11 x 14 in.
After the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, the primary
focus of the war shifted to the South. General Nathanael
Greene was appointed by Washington to command the
southern army in December 1780. British General Charles
Cornwallis had withdrawn towards Camden after being
defeated in South Carolina, and Greene moved south in
pursuit. Greene and Cornwallis maneuvered back and forth
until Cornwallis split his force, hoping to catch and destroy a
detachment under the Virginian Daniel Morgan. Morgan,
however, turned on the British Legion at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17, 1781, and won a
stunning victory.
Refusing to concede defeat, Cornwallis drove his entire army after Morgan, who successfully linked
up with Greene near Virginia at the Guilford Courthouse (in present-day Greensboro), North Carolina.
Greene recounted that the Battle of Guilford Courthouse “was long, obstinate and bloody.” Although
Cornwallis technically defeated the Americans, the British Army sustained considerable casualties,
which meant a victory for the patriots and led to the eventual surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Surrender at Yorktown
1986, Gouache/board
12-1/2 x 14 in.
Cornwallis moved north after the Battle at Guilford
Courthouse, leading his troops towards the Virginia
coast in order to reconnect with the British forces in New
York. They settled in Yorktown, Virginia in August.
Washington seized the opportunity to attack Cornwallis,
directing American forces in Virginia to impede the
British from retreating south by land as he marched
from the north with his 2,500 troops and a French force
of 4,000 under the leadership of the Count de
Rochambeau. The French fleet also provided support
offshore, preventing British ships from supplying
Cornwallis with necessary reinforcements. Washington
and his army attacked General Cornwallis and his men at Yorktown on October 14, 1781. The French
and American soldiers stormed the forts and overcame the British after bitter, but brief, hand-to-hand
combat. On October 17, a British officer holding a white handkerchief approached the American
soldiers with a message from Cornwallis requesting a discussion of terms of surrender. The Articles
of Capitulation were signed on October 19 and Cornwallis and his army became prisoners of war.
Later that day, the allied Franco-American army entered the British positions and formed up lines with
the Americans on the right and French on the left. Cornwallis’s army marched with their flags furled
and muskets reversed to signify their shame while their drums beat a slow march. Yorktown was the
greatest victory of the Revolutionary War, and set in motion the wheels that eventually led to
independence.
Washington's Homecoming, Mount Vernon,
December 24, 1783, 2012
Oil on canvas, 32 x 44 in.
The Revolutionary War officially ended on September
3, 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, and the
British evacuated New York on November 25. On
December 4, in Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan,
Washington bid farewell to his officers in a final toast.
He then rode south, arriving in Baltimore on December
17, and continuing on to Annapolis six days later to
resign his commission as commander in chief and
deliver a farewell address to Congress. Upon hearing
that Washington would not exploit his victorious position to become the American monarch, King
George III described the general as “the greatest man in the world.”
Washington began his journey home the next day, determined to reach Mount Vernon by evening,
after more than eight years away at war. Künstler imagines the moment of his arrival, although few
details are known apart from the fact that it snowed that evening. The artist depicts Washington as
he greets Martha with a warm embrace, surrounded by servants and family, home for Christmas after
a long, bitter war.
The Constitution Debated, Constitutional Convention,
1787, 1984
Gouache on board
12-1/2 x 14 in.
The Articles of Confederation had been adequate during
the war, but within a few years it became obvious that they
could not provide a lasting foundation for a stable
government. In February 1787, Congress called for a new
convention of the states to meet in Philadelphia to “render
the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the
exigencies of the Union.” The Convention opened on May
25, and the delegates promptly elected George
Washington to preside over the proceedings, although he
did not take an active role in the debates. Instead, James Madison of Virginia took the lead in
advocating a proposal for a strong central government, as outlined in the Virginia Plan that he had
drafted.
Debate began and continued throughout the summer. Opponents of the Virginia Plan proposed an
alternate New Jersey Plan, advocated by New Jersey delegate William Paterson, which would have
severely limited federal powers. The delegates ultimately agreed upon a model of government that
relied upon a series of checks and balances, dividing federal authority between the Legislative, the
Judicial, and the Executive branches of government. Among the most significant events in the history
of the country, the Convention resulted in the creation of the United States Constitution.
Washington’s Inauguration, 1789, 1985
Gouache on board
12 x 14 in.
George Washington was the obvious choice for first president
of the United States. The delegates who framed the
Constitution had created the office with him in mind. In
February 1789, all 69 presidential electors unanimously
voted Washington into office. Nevertheless, he was not eager
to re-enter public life. On April 16, he wrote in his diary: “I
bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic
felicity; and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and
painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for
New York…with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with
less hope of answering its expectations.”
Just after noon on April 30, 1789, Washington stepped onto a balcony outside the Senate chamber
at Federal Hall in New York, then the nation’s capital. He took the oath of office at one o’clock—one
hand on a Bible positioned on a crimson velvet cushion—from Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of
New York, which was followed by cheers from the large crowd that had assembled to witness the
inaugural ceremony. Representative Fisher Ames of Massachusetts wrote that “it was a very touching
scene, and quite of the solemn kind.” The president read his inaugural address to Congress, and the
evening celebration was opened and closed by a pyrotechnic display featuring 13 skyrockets and 13
cannons.
Drawings in Display Case
In these studies, Künstler focuses on individual soldiers, with particular attention to their uniforms and
weaponry. British officers, as seen in British at Germantown, were effectively trained and battleseasoned, and their soldiers were well supplied and equipped. Their ranks were boosted by
approximately 30,000 Loyalist soldiers and militiamen, in addition to 30,000 Hessians (Germans). In
contrast, the Continental Army was described by a British surgeon as “truly nothing but a drunken,
canting, lying, praying, hypocritical rabble, without order, subjection, discipline, or cleanliness; [that]
must fall to pieces of itself in the course of three months.” American soldiers, as seen in Minuteman
and Continental Officer, were poorly equipped and undisciplined. Washington called them “an
exceedingly dirty and nasty people.” Although, the officers were amateurs, the Americans possessed
certain qualities that set them apart: a special blend of endurance and adaptability. Time and again
in the war’s first years, they were defeated, yet always recovered and reentered the fray, each time a
little stronger than before. With no formal training, irregular supplies, and often without strong
leadership, the Americans learned from their defeats, adapting to circumstances in ways the British
could not anticipate, and eventually winning the war.
Morgan’s Rifles, 2013
Mixed Media
14 x 11 in.
In June 1775, the Continental Congress ordered the formation of
ten rifle companies from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
Virginian Daniel Morgan, who had served in the British army during
the French and Indian War, raised a company of sharpshooting
frontiersmen from his home state and headed to Washington’s
headquarters at Cambridge. Morgan’s company had a significant
advantage over most of the British and American troops—they
carried rifles, which were lighter and easier to fire, as well as more
accurate.
Minuteman, 2013
Mixed media, 22 x 17 in.
The Loyalist, 2013
Mixed media, 17 x 10 1/2 in.
Preliminary study for Washington’s Crossing [Figures on
Ferry], 2011
Charcoal on paper, 7 x 10 in.
Preliminary studies for Washington’s Crossing [Ferry and
River Diagrams], 2011
Charcoal on paper, 11-5/8 x 13-7/8 in.
Preliminary study for Washington’s Crossing [Ferry Diagram],
2011
Charcoal on paper, 11 x 9 in.