TITUS KAPHAR: In this painting, we have this radiant, glowing sky behind George Washington as he stands on this mountainside and we see a battle going on in the background and boats on the Hudson. I love the way Trumbull paints skies.

My name is Titus Kaphar. I'm a painter, sculptor, and filmmaker.

I look at this painting and it takes me back to graduate school, where I first became obsessed with Trumbull.He, more than any other, is the painter that gives us a picture for the beginning of America. Trumbull made me realize that these paintings are historical fiction. They are constructs composed for the purpose of telling a very specific story about this country and about those characters.

So often, in paintings from this period, there is a central white figure and an adoring Black figure off to the edge. And off to the right is William Lee, who was enslaved by Washington for most of his life.

These kinds of pictures are very much related to the way Christ was depicted in historical paintings. We have George Washington on the mountaintop. We have the glowing light around his head. We have the Black figure looking to him as though he’s ready to worship. William Lee is depicted in this way to further solidify the idea that white people have power, should be worshiped, should be adored, and that Black people are to serve.

It’s Trumbull that made me feel like I had permission to alter reality to tell the story I wanted to tell.

NARRATOR: Nearby you’ll find Kaphar’s reimagined portrait of William Lee.