Moll Pitcher Being Presented to George Washington

Artist Dennis Malone Carter

Period1856

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions42.75 × 56 in. (108.6 × 142.2 cm)

SignedSigned in the lower right on the drum face, "D. M. Carter / 1856."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1941

Object number1640

DescriptionA historic scene of the morning after the Battle of Monmouth, which occurred on 28 June 1778. George Washington appears in the center of the canvas on a white horse. To the left of Washington is Baron von Steuben. The two officers behind Washington may be Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton. General Greene stands before Washington and von Steuben presenting Molly Pitcher to the General. She is dressed in a red skirt and a Continental soldier's jacket. In the middle and distant backgrounds are numerous soldiers on foot and horseback. A cannon is depicted on the left margin, and another cannon in parts on the right along with a punctured drum. Weapons are spread on the ground in the foreground, and the sunrise sky is filled with smoke.
Curatorial RemarksAn Irish-born artist based primarily in New York City, Dennis Malone Carter often explored themes related to Revolutionary War imagery in New Jersey. In this painting, he shows General Greene introducing Molly Pitcher to General Washington and Baron von Steuben on the morning of 29 June 1778. The incident was described in a report published in the New-Jersey State Gazette on 1 December 1837, but there is no proof that it actually occurred. During the pre-Civil War era, the Cult of True Womanhood (also known as the Cult of Domesticity) dictated that women behave in a virtuous and submissive manner in order to set a moral example for their families. Adhering to this notion (and in order to make his painting appealing to prospective patrons), Carter not only created an imaginary scene: he depicted Molly as an “ultra-feminine” type––a shy lass with dainty features, neatly arranged hair, and clothing that highlights her small waist. In both her physical beauty and passive demeanor, she comes across as the ideal antebellum woman––a far cry from “Captain Molly,” the spirited and brawny camp follower who manned her husband’s cannon. In his Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Benson J. Lossing reported that when Molly met Washington, she was “covered with dirt and blood,” which is certainly not the case here. Carter’s sentimental painting is said to have been created at the suggestion of Horace Greeley (1811–1872), the influential editor of the New-York Tribune, who felt that the “sorrowful heroine . . . was by far the most suggestive of the future ideal of a patriotic painting. It was also a more peaceful, humane reminiscence of the great battle from which grew such momentous results.” NotesThe Dennis M. Carter painting of Moll Pitcher Being Presented to George Washington is a companion to another painting by Carter entitled Moll Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth (Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York City). Both are of the same size and format, and in identical frames. The latter work depicts Molly Pitcher as a rough, masculine figure manning a cannon, a far cry from the demure, well-coifed, well-dressed female pictured in Moll Pitcher Being Presented to George Washington.

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