The Continentals

Frank Blackwell Mayer, The Continentals, 1875, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, George Buchanan Coale Collection, 1926.6.8

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Frank Blackwell Mayer painted this scene of Continental soldiers on the centennial of the battle of Bunker Hill, the first great battle of the Revolutionary War. In 1876 he submitted it to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, an event that celebrated the founding of the nation. The painting was highly praised and became so popular that other artists copied it enthusiastically. The cheerful image of soldiers marching through the snow to the beat of a drum and the sound of a flute reinforced the glowing myth of the war, inspiring a renewed patriotism on the nation’s one hundredth birthday. (Page, “Francis Blackwell Mayer,” The Magazine Antiques, February 1976)

Title

The Continentals

Artist

Frank Blackwell Mayer

Date

1875

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Dimensions