Description
This print reproduces John Trumbull’s 1780 oil on canvas George Washington and William Lee, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (24.109.88). Trumbull, a former aide-de-camp, painted it in London while studying with Benjamin West. Washington stands above the Hudson. West Point is under fire in the distance. Behind him stands William Lee, enslaved valet and groom, holding the horse.
Trumbull would have known Lee from the war, yet he dressed him in a turban after a European convention for Black attendants. No accurate independent portrait of Lee is known. Washington later freed Lee by will and granted him an annuity. Valentine Green engraved this composition in London in 1781. That mezzotint is related but not the oil.
This listing is a contemporary print after the painting, not the original oil. Choose fine art paper, luster photo paper, or mounted canvas.
