Oil on canvas; 8 3/16 x 64 3/8 in. (249.4 x 163.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.
General Eliott commanded the British Garrison against the allied Spanish and French forces at Gibraltar, in the European theater during the American Revolution. Pictured in the background is a battle in September 1782.
Eliott is also portrayed in John Trumbull’s painting of an earlier battle in the same year at Gibraltar, as well as a Gibraltar painting by John Singleton Copley.
Despite deceptive appearances, the British were far from luxuriating in Philadelphia while Washington and his army suffered at Valley Forge. Every public building was used to house two thousand sick and wounded British and Hessian soldiers. The army was placed on half-rations, and there was a shortage of medical and hospital supplies that caused tension between the British and the Hessians. Unable to obtain supplies, the city became a prison for as many as fifty thousand inhabitants and troops.