| Portrait of John Burgoyne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Joshua Reynolds |
| Year | 1766 |
| Type | Oil on canvas, portrait |
| Location | Frick Collection, New York City |
Portrait of John Burgoyne is a 1766 portrait painting by the English artist Joshua Reynolds of the British soldier, politician and playwright John Burgoyne, best known for his later service in the American War of Independence. [1]
At the time of painting Burgoyne had won distinction during the Seven Years War in resisting the 1762 Spanish Invasion of Portugal. Since 1761 he had been Member of Parliament for Midhurst and in 1768 he won a hotly-contested election in Preston, a seat he held for the rest of his life.
Burgoyne would later become known for writing two plays The Maid of the Oaks (1774) and The Heiress (1786), both staged in London's West End. [2] In 1777 he led a British Army south from Canada to capture Albany in New York but mislaid orders meant he was isolated at the Battle of Saratoga and forced to surrender to Horatio Gates, a former British officer now serving with the Continental Army. Burgoyne insisted that his troops become a Convention Army and be shipped back to Britain to continue fighting in the war, but the Continental Congress repudiated these terms and imprisoned the soldiers. Burgoyne was himself paroled and allowed to return home to defend his conduct.
Reynolds was an established British portrait painter when he depicted Burgoyne. [3] He was subsequently a driving force behind the creation of the Royal Academy in 1768 and served as its first President until 1792. Reynolds shows Burgoyne in military dress with sword. He wears the uniform of the Sixteenth Light Dragoons, a branch of the light cavalry. It was commissioned by his former commander in Portugal William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe. [4] He is silhouetted against a low horizon and stormy sky, a common feature of romantic art. In the background on the bottom left a battle is taking place. It is now in the Frick Collection in New York City having been acquired in 1943. [5] [6]
Sir Joshua Reynolds was an English painter who specialised in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting, which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts and was knighted by George III in 1769.
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion army of 7,200–8,000 men southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the goal was to take Albany, New York. The southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York 15 miles (24 km) short of his goal. He fought two battles which took place 18 days apart on the same ground 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. He gained a victory in the first battle despite being outnumbered, but lost the second battle after the Americans returned with an even larger force.
General John Burgoyne was a British general, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, most notably during the Portugal campaign of 1762.
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Horatio Lloyd Gates was a British-born American army officer who served as a general in the Continental Army during the early years of the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory in the Battles of Saratoga (1777) – a matter of contemporary and historical controversy – and was blamed for the defeat at the Battle of Camden in 1780. Gates has been described as "one of the Revolution's most controversial military figures" because of his role in the Conway Cabal, which attempted to discredit and replace General George Washington; the battle at Saratoga; and his actions during and after his defeat at Camden.
Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier, and politician from Virginia. One of the most respected battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, he later commanded troops during the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791–1794.
The Saratoga campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. It ended in the surrender of the British army, which historian Edmund Morgan argues, "was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory."
Simon Fraser was a British general during the American War of Independence. He was killed in the Battle of Bemis Heights during the Saratoga Campaign. The shot that killed Fraser is often attributed to Timothy Murphy, of Daniel Morgan's Rifle Corps, which was assigned to the Left and under the command of Benedict Arnold, who was leading Morgan's men as well as Dearborn, Cilley, Poor, and the rest of the American left wing, which was attempting to push back the reconnaissance in force led by Simon Fraser on the Barber Wheatfield.
William Whipple Jr. was an American Founding Father and signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence. He represented New Hampshire as a member of the Continental Congress from 1776 through 1779. He worked as both a ship's captain and a merchant, and he studied in college to become a judge. He died of heart complications in 1785, aged 55.
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John Trumbull was an American painter and military officer best known for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Revolution". Trumbull's Declaration of Independence (1817), one of his four paintings that hang in the United States Capitol rotunda, is used on the reverse of the current United States two-dollar bill.
The Siege of Fort Ticonderoga of 1777 occurred between 2 July and 6 July 1777 at Fort Ticonderoga, near the southern end of Lake Champlain in the state of New York. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's 8,000-man army occupied high ground above the fort, and nearly surrounded the defenses. These movements precipitated the occupying Continental Army, an under-strength force of 3,000 under the command of General Arthur St. Clair, to withdraw from Ticonderoga and the surrounding defenses. Some gunfire was exchanged, and there were some casualties, but there was no formal siege and no pitched battle. Burgoyne's army occupied Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, the extensive fortifications on the Vermont side of the lake, without opposition on 6 July. Advance units pursued the retreating Americans.
The Convention Army (1777–1783) was an army of British and allied troops captured after the Battles of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War.
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The Surrender of General Burgoyne is an oil painting by the American artist John Trumbull. The painting was completed in 1821 and hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C.
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Thaïs is a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the English courtesan Emily Warren in the guise of the hetaera Thaïs, mistress of Alexander the Great. It is in oil on canvas and measures 229 x 145 cm. She holds a burning torch and with the other hand exhorts Alexander and his followers to burn down Persepolis. Reynolds exhibited it at the Royal Academy in London in 1781. It is now at Waddesdon Manor.
Portrait of a Man in a Red Cap, also known as Man with a Red Cap, is an oil painting by the Venetian painter Titian, made in about 1516. It is part of the Frick Collection in New York City.
Portrait of Banastre Tarleton is a 1782 portrait painting by the English artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. It depicts the British army officer Banastre Tarleton against a background scene of battle, referring to his recent service in the American War of Independence. Tarleton is shown in the uniform of the British Legion, a unit of American Loyalist cavalry which he had served with before surrendering at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. Reynolds, President of the Royal Academy, was of the country's leading portraitists.
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