Detail of the painting The Siege of Yorktown

The American Revolution

A World War

Closed July 9, 2019
Online

The American Revolution: A World War viewed the American Revolution through a global lens and examined the 1781 victory at Yorktown and the Franco-American partnership that made it possible. The exhibition featured the paintings The Siege of Yorktown and The Surrender of Yorktown, created by Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe in 1786 as copies of those presented to King Louis XVI, and George Washington’s early 1780s portrait by Charles Willson Peale, united for the first time in a national museum since their display together in the 1700s. They appeared in the Comte de Rochambeau’s chamber as a reminder of the French general’s partnership with the American general.

Major support for this exhibition was provided by Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman and Mrs. Eugenia L. Taubman, Jeff and Mary Lynn Garrett, and Susan and Elihu Rose, as well as many generous donors.