George Washington at Princeton was wildly popular after his victory

It's not surprising that the most prominent painters of the day wished to depict Gen. Washington on canvas given how the news of Washington's triumph at Princeton had electrified the nation. Early in 1779, George Washington at Princeton was completed by Princeton student and Continental Army veteran Charles Willson Peale, who painted Washington most frequently. The Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania had ordered the artwork for its council rooms in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Following the painting's premiere, there was a huge demand for copies. For clientele as diverse as King Louis XVI, the Spanish Court, and the island of Cuba, Peale is thought to have produced 18 or more separate duplicates of the painting. The US Senate, Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Princeton University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts all currently house reproductions of the originals. Each of these reproductions uses various canvas sizes, modernized outfits, unique backdrops, and other changes.

Washington is seen in the original painting, which is now kept in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, leaning on the barrel of a captured cannon with the Hessian and British flags at his feet. Nassau Hall, the location of the decisive battle's last minutes, can be seen in the backdrop as Washington, wearing a blue and buff uniform with a commander's sash, stares boldly in the viewer's direction.