John Francis Renault, The British Surrendering their Arms to Gen. Washington after their Defeat at York Town in Virginia 1781. Engraving. Philadelphia: Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Co., 1819-23.
In 1800, artist John Renault solicited subscriptions for this engraving of the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia. His imagined design places George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Charles O'Hara, and General Cornwallis (who was not actually at Yorktown) in the foreground with other soldiers, against a backdrop of allegorical figures such as the Goddess of America, Peace, and Justice. On the right side of the print, a dramatic scene shows the Downfall of Royalty with bolts of lightning and broken chariots. According to newspaper accounts, Renault charged subscribers $12 each, but by 1815, no engraving had been produced. Four years later, a Philadelphia firm completed the copperplate and distributed the prints, along with a map of the battle of Yorktown, to the subscribers and to a broader public eager in memorialize the end of the American Revolution.