The Battle of Monmouth, 1778

Periodca. 1860 - 1870

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions33.25 × 49.5 in. (84.5 × 125.7 cm)

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Josephine B. Barry, 1945

Object number2068

DescriptionA battle scene of the Battle of Monmouth showing George Washington on a white horse in the center of the canvas, with Marquis de Lafayette and Baron von Steuben immediately behind him. Two soldiers dressed in Continental uniforms are approaching Washington from the left. One holds a red flag on a carrying pole with a red, white and blue canton in its upper corner. The other has a sword hanging from his arm, which is upraised and holding his hat. A small pool of water is depicted in the foreground, with five soldiers beside it. One is laying on a cot and is injured. He is being bled from his foot. A medical box appears close to the water's edge. Cannon smoke obscures a blue sky. A vignette in the upper right distance depicts Molly Pitcher and a group of men actively firing a cannon. Trees and bushes, some defoliated, frame the composition on the left, foreground, and right.
Curatorial RemarksThis triumphant battlefield picture has long been attributed to John R. Chapin, who used the same figure grouping and landscape elements in his portrayal of Washington at the Battle of Princeton (circa 1860s; Historical Society of Princeton, New Jersey). An artist, illustrator, and wood engraver who resided in Rahway, New Jersey, from 1854 until about 1873, Chapin linked the Association’s painting to the Monmouth events of 28 June 1778 (and heighted the romance of the scene) by including Molly Pitcher and her cannon in the upper right.NotesThe Battle of Monmouth, which took place near Freehold, NJ, on 28 June 1778, underscores the iconic status of George Washington in the tradition of mid-nineteenth century history painting. It also reveals the way in which artists manipulated their compositions for purposes of marketing. The painting shows the general being approached by a pair of Continental soldiers. The man on the right carries an American regimental flag once believed, incorrectly, to be the tattered standard of British Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Monckton’s battalion, while his cohort holds an officer’s sword, probably the one Captain William Wilson of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment took from Monckton, who was felled by grapeshot around noon and later died at the Old Tennent Church.

Collections