N. C. Wyeth 1882 - 1945

Ginn and Company, Boston, Massachusetts (commissioned from the artist)

William J. Long, America, A History of Our Country, Boston, Massachusetts, 1923, illustrated in color as the frontispiece
Thomas Bonaventure Lawler, Builders of America, Boston, Massachusetts, 1927, p. 195, illustrated
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N.C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, New York, 1972, p. 210
Christine B. Podmaniczky, N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, 2008, vol. I, no. I.742 (592), p. 379, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition. The canvas is unlined. Under UV: there is one spot of inpainting in Washington's hair, one pindot in his coat and one small spot in the leaves above his hat. There are a few pindots of inpainting in the hat of the figure to the left of Washington.
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N.C. Wyeth executed Beginning of the American Union Washington Salutes the Flag as He Takes Command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, 1775 as part of a commission from Ginn and Company, a large American publishing company particularly known for its textbooks. The artist created the present work for a history textbook entitled, America, A History of Our Country, by William J. Long and published in 1923. Befitting the purpose of the volume to instruct young Americans in their country’s history, the imagery Wyeth produced is overtly patriotic. Along with the present work, which was used as the color frontispiece for the volume, Wyeth also painted an image of Abraham Lincoln delivering his Second Inaugural Address, proudly standing before Congress in 1865 as an American flag waves above his head (Fig. 1).

In the present work, Wyeth depicts General George Washington as the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in 1775. The moment the artist chose to portray is an early one in the history of the American Revolution, when the outcome and consequences of the uprising were decidedly unknown. Wyeth himself describes the scene by saying, “The incident I have chosen is the moment of his (Washington) salute to his first army, under the elm on Cambridge, Common. Somehow, I've got a Washington that looks convincing to me, and I hope others will feel so” (on a typed label affixed to the stretcher). The image of the future president Wyeth projects emanates vitality and power. Washington sits regally in the center of the composition in front of his army, sword raised as if prepared to meet any challenge. Among the soldiers Wyeth depicts are likely the prominent generals Israel Putnam and Charles Lee. Washington’s hair, rendered in brown rather than the more typical white, emphasizes Washington as vigorous and youthful, while the white horse upon which he sits underscores the idea of the general as the imminent savior of the new American union.