{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Gift of Edward Wasserman in honor of his children, Jesse A., Renee H., and Edward Wasserman Jr.","caption":"William T. Ranney (1813–1857; born Middletown, CT; died West Hoboken, NJ), Washington Rallying the Americans at the Battle of Princeton, 1848. Oil on canvas; 123 × 163 cm (sheet, sight), 157.8 × 194.9 × 25.2 cm (frame). Gift of Edward Wasserman in honor of his children, Jesse A., Renee H., and Edward Wasserman Jr. (y1943-120)","cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","terms":[{"id":2053145,"term":"oil paintings","aatid":300033799,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2099724,"term":"patriotism","aatid":300055531,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2134545,"term":"battles","aatid":300185692,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2057248,"term":"light brown","aatid":300127503,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2057735,"term":"yellow","aatid":300127794,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2088735,"term":"soldiers","aatid":300185678,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2059573,"term":"dark blue","aatid":300129621,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2061154,"term":"white (color)","aatid":300129784,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2135437,"term":"deaths","aatid":300151836,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2127068,"term":"flags","aatid":300195678,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055688,"term":"history paintings","aatid":300033898,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2088270,"term":"men","aatid":300025928,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2167780,"term":"oil paint","aatid":300015050,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2171344,"term":"canvas","aatid":null,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place depicted: North America, United States, New Jersey, Princeton","code":"Place depicted","continent":"North America","subcontinent":null,"country":"United States","region":null,"state":"New Jersey","city":"Princeton","county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"https://www.geonames.org/5102922/princeton.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"157.79"},{"element":"frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"194.94"},{"element":"frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"25.24"},{"element":"sheet","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"123.00"},{"element":"sheet","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"163.00"}],"markings":null,"accessionyear":"1943-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":3174,"displayname":"William T. Ranney","displaydate":"1813–1857; born Middletown, CT; died West Hoboken, NJ","datebegin":1813,"dateend":1857,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"William T. Ranney, 1813–1857; born Middletown, CT; died West Hoboken, NJ","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":1848,"signed":"Signed and dated bottom center: W Ranney 1848\r\nSigned and dated lower right: Henry Inman 1834","restrictions":null,"classification":"Paintings","packages":[{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":213904,"name":"Gallery_23-27(Pavilion7)-American"},{"packageid":203265,"name":"web_ObjectLessons_Sections_08-18_Gender"},{"packageid":206417,"name":"image_descriptions_top250"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":190619,"name":"x-COMPLETE-Image_descriptions_HB"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"},{"packageid":204016,"name":"x-COMPLETE-image_descriptions_American_Art_paintings"},{"packageid":205696,"name":"exh_tour_Object_Lessons"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"},{"id":2053145,"classification":"oil paintings"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":3649,"citation":"Object Lessons in American Art: Selections from the Princeton University Art Museum Saturday, February 4, 2023 - Sunday, January 7, 2024","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2023-02-04","enddate":"2024-01-07","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3649"},{"exhibitionid":3365,"citation":"Making History Visible: Of American Myths and National Heroes (Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - Sunday, January 14, 2018)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2017-09-26","enddate":"2018-01-14","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3365"}],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMANX22_2244"],"displaytitle":"Washington Rallying the Americans at the Battle of Princeton","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"William T. Ranney, 1813–1857; born Middletown, CT; died West Hoboken, NJ","captionhtml":"William T. Ranney (1813–1857; born Middletown, CT; died West Hoboken, NJ), <i>Washington Rallying the Americans at the Battle of Princeton</i>, 1848. Oil on canvas; 123 × 163 cm (sheet, sight), 157.8 × 194.9 × 25.2 cm (frame). Gift of Edward Wasserman in honor of his children, Jesse A., Renee H., and Edward Wasserman Jr. (y1943-120)","displaydate":"1848","medium":"Oil on canvas","media":[{"id":236798,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMANX22_2244","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM Photo"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":true,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 235","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"Donald D. Egbert, <i>Princeton Portraits,</i> (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947).","citation":"Donald D. Egbert, <i>Princeton Portraits,</i> (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947)., p. 329; fig. 223","date":1947,"id":475,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/740984936"},{"boilertext":"Time-Life Books, <EM>History of the Gun in 500 Photographs</EM> (New York: Time-Life Books, 2016).","citation":"Time-Life Books, <EM>History of the Gun in 500 Photographs</EM> (New York: Time-Life Books, 2016).","date":2016,"id":6823,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/960638773"},{"boilertext":"Ulrich Raulff, <EM>Das letzte Jahrhundert der Pferde: Geschichte einer Trennung</EM> (München: C.H. Beck, 2015).","citation":"Ulrich Raulff, <EM>Das letzte Jahrhundert der Pferde: Geschichte einer Trennung</EM> (München: C.H. Beck, 2015).","date":0,"id":6861,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/930610822"},{"boilertext":"F. J. Mather, \"American paintings at Princeton University,\" <EM>Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University</EM> 2,<EM> </EM>no. 2 (1943): p. 2-15.","citation":"F. J. Mather, \"American paintings at Princeton University,\" <EM>Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University</EM> 2,<EM> </EM>no. 2 (1943): p. 2-15., p. 7","date":1943,"id":3193,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774197"},{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 225 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"American Art","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1800-1850","dateend":1848,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Washington Rallying the Americans at the Battle of Princeton","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"y1943-120","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\nDuring the initial engagement of the Battle of Princeton, British forces dispersed the vanguard American brigade after bayoneting its leader, General Hugh Mercer. In response, George Washington arrived dramatically on horseback to rally the troops, bolstered by fresh reinforcements and artillery. Mercer’s men reassembled, contributing significantly to the eventual American victory. As here depicted by William Ranney, General Washington is shown astride a rearing white steed in the tradition of heroic military portraiture, in particular Jacques-Louis David’s clearly related <I>Napoleon at Saint Bernard</I> (1800). Washington is depicted improbably close to the opposing Hessian soldiers, with no trace of the reinforcements who accompanied him, as if to imply his undisputed agency in effecting the rally and ensuing victory. The picture was long thought to be the work of American painter Henry Inman, as it bears that artist’s signature and the date 1834. A cleaning following the painting’s arrival at Princeton, however, revealed a second signature and date: \"W Ranney 1848.\" Logic would dictate that Ranney had simply completed an unfinished work by Inman, not an uncommon practice then, but Inman, primarily a portraitist, is not known to have undertaken a painting anything like this one, nor does reference to it appear in any of the contemporary literature surrounding him. Moreover, while subsequent technical analysis revealed extensive overpainting throughout the image and evidence of two hands in its creation, neither particularly accords with Inman’s work. Hence, it appears likely that the painting’s initial conception was indeed Ranney’s, who in fact completed several similar historical pictures about the American Revolution. When, why, and by whom it was altered remain inconclusive, although it seems plausible the historically greater renown and market value of Inman’s work in relation to Ranney’s may have been a factor in the presence of his signature.</P></SPAN>","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Special Exhibition","textentryhtml":"George Washington’s successful counterattack at the Battle of Princeton was a turning point in the Revolutionary War. Washington commands the focal point of this painting; he emerges from a cloud of dark smoke on a rearing white steed, his figure towering above a band of Hessian soldiers. Ranney depicted Washington in the tradition of heroic military portraiture—for example, Jacques-Louis David’s <em>Napoleon Crossing the Alps</em>—transforming the general into the symbolic icon of the American Revolution. Washington’s victory in Princeton was commemorated in numerous paintings both at the time (as in the full-length portrait by Charles Willson Peale that opens the galleries of American art).","remarks":"Making History Visible "},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Manigault Collection, Charleston (SC). Edward Wasserman (1859-1914), New York (NY); donated to the Corcoran Gallery, Washington; donated to Princeton University by Edward Wasserman in the name of his children Jesse A., Renée II, and Edward Wasserman, Jr., 1911 [1].\n\n[1] Since Edward Wassermann could not ask for his gift back from the Corcoran Gallery, the donation to Princeton took place through the intercession of James B. Townsend. As James’s letters to Allan Marquand about the donation are written on the letterhead of the journal American Art News, he was probably a family member of its founder and editor, Charles B. Townsend (Princeton Graduate School Class of 1882). After reaching Princ","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1848,"sortnumber":"1943  120y","published_date":"2026-02-11 09:42:07.291783","objectid":22043,"dimensions":"sheet (sight): 123 × 163 cm (48 7/16 × 64 3/16 in.)\r\nframe: 157.8 × 194.9 × 25.2 cm (62 1/8 × 76 3/4 × 9 15/16 in.)","on_view":true}