Newly Found Painting Shows George Washington's Army Tent

 

One late night in May, Philip Mead¹ was looking for historical objects from the American Revolution. He noticed a painting being offered for sale on the internet.

Suddenly, he felt his heartbeat speeding up.

Mead is the chief historian² at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The painting is an unsigned watercolor from 1782. It shows the army tent that George Washington had used as his command center during the Revolutionary War. And, to Mead, this seemed to be the only known artwork from that period to show this tent.

The painting is the top exhibit at the museum, which opened in April 2017. And, thanks to Mead, the museum now owns the painting, which will be the centerpiece of a show next year.

Mead said the discovery seemed almost “too good to be true.”

“I’ve had this level of excitement only a handful of times in my 30 years of looking for this stuff,” he said.

When Mead saw the tent painting, he immediately emailed the image to Scott Stephenson.

Stephenson serves as the museum’s vice³ president of collections, exhibitions and programming. He said his heart jumped when he realized what the painting was.

The next step was to quickly find people willing to donate money to buy the painting, which was up for auction⁴. It was to be sold just days after Mead’s discovery.

He and Stephenson were concerned that they might not be the only people to have seen the rare work. And they were not sure the painting was exactly what they'd hoped. But they still followed their plan.

The painting got only one other bidder⁵. And so, the Museum of the American Revolution easily bought the painting for $12,000. Then, museum workers studied the picture and confirmed that it shows the Continental⁶ Army’s fall encampment at Verplanck’s Point, New York.

The painter was a French-born engineer, Pierre L’Enfant. He served in the Continental Army.

L’Enfant was wounded at the Siege⁷ of Savannah and taken prisoner at the surrender of Charleston, South Carolina. When released, he went back to serve with Washington for the rest of the war. Years later, he worked on planning the design for Washington, D.C.

The painting shows hundreds of military tents across the hills of New York's Hudson Valley. On the left side is Washington’s field command center, including the tent.

Most artwork about the war was created after it, historians⁸ say. So the images didn’t necessarily show real events.

Mead said having a painting by L'Enfant is "like having a Google Street View look at a Revolutionary War encampment."

Although L'Enfant did not sign the painting, it is similar to one he made in 1782 of troops at West Point, New York. The family who cared for L’Enfant at the end of his life gave it to the United States Library of Congress.

The appearance, the dates of both paintings, and handwriting helped to confirm L'Enfant as the painter.

Sometime in the past, the original tent painting was cut into six pieces of paper and placed into a folder⁹. An expert is working to clean the painting and put the pieces back together so it can be shown as it was meant to.

It will be the central piece of an exhibit called “Among His Troops: Washington’s War Tent in a Newly Discovered Watercolor.”

The exhibition will open on January 13, 2018.

To offer visitors a more complete show, the museum is also borrowing the West Point painting from the Library of Congress.

I'm Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

tent – n. a portable¹⁰ shelter that is used outdoors, is made of cloth and is held up with poles and ropes

exhibit – n. a presentation or showing

handful – n. an amount that you can hold in your hand

auction – n. a public sale at which things are sold to the people who offer to pay the most

bid – v. to offer to pay a specific amount of money for something that is being sold

original – n. that from which a copy or reproduction is made

folder – n. a folded cover or large envelope for holding documents

1 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

2 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

5 bidder   

n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder.电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。
• The bidder withdrew his bid after submission of his bid.投标者在投标之后撤销了投标书。

6 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

7 siege   

n.包围，围攻，围困

参考例句：

• The city was thrown down during the siege.在围城过程中，这座城市被摧毁了。
• The enemy lay siege to the town in attempt to starve the people to death.敌人围城，企图将人们饿死。

8 historians   

n.历史学家，史学工作者( historian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Historians seem to have confused the chronology of these events. 历史学家好像把这些事件发生的年代顺序搞混了。
• Historians have concurred with each other in this view. 历史学家在这个观点上已取得一致意见。

9 folder   

n.纸夹，文件夹

参考例句：

• Peter returned the plan and charts to their folder.彼得把这份计划和表格放回文件夹中。
• He draws the document from its folder.他把文件从硬纸夹里抽出来。

10 portable   

adj.轻便的，手提式的；n.便携的东西

参考例句：

• I have a portable typewriter.我有一个便携式打字机。
• There is a pretty portable pair of steps in one corner of the room.屋角放着一架小巧玲珑的折梯。