Triumph of Patriotism– Washington Entering New York, 25 November 1783

Darley’s composition celebrates the end of Britain’s long occupation of New York City, from September 15, 1776, to November 25, 1783 (Evacuation Day), three months after the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Here, the American commander in chief, George Washington, rides through lower Manhattan, accompanied at left by his generals Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich von Steuben, and Henry Knox, and at right by Governor George Clinton of New York. Cheering figures and curious bystanders line the route, as mounted soldiers urge a blacksmith and a mother and child out of harm’s way. Darley hoped that his heroic conception would rival Emmanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) and become an icon of the American Revolution.