Many Americans don't realize how popular the American Revolution was in France. The people liked it because the Americans were commoners rebelling against a throne, and the aristocrats liked it because it was the values of the Enlightenment and the British lost. At the end of the war there were huge public dances to celebrate at Place de la Concorde (then called Place Louis-XV) and elsewhere.
This print of Wasington, Généralissime des Etats unis de l'Amérique shows Washington in the blue and buff uniform of the Continental Army, during or just after the war. When the war started he was 44. I bought it at an antiques fair in Paris years ago. On the bottom it says, "Drawn by Bonnieu from a painting furnished by Monsieur the Marquis de la Fayette."
Comments