After the British signed the peace treaty that ended the American War for Independence in 1783, the City of London decided to commission a work of art to commemorate the conflict. The city’s representatives approached John Singleton Copley for the job. Copley, a portrait painter born and bred in Boston, had spent the war years in London trying to hone his craft while avoiding the divisiveness of politics. The City had no small task in mind for the artist. They asked Copley to paint one of the largest works of art ever commissioned in the history of Great Britain. They also had a specific subject in mind: the siege of Gibraltar.[1]
The siege of Gibraltar was the longest and largest battle of the American Revolution, although American forces were not engaged in it. It began in 1779 and did not end until the Treaty of Paris three long years later. Strategically positioned at the mouth of the Mediterranean, the Rock of Gibraltar was a prize Spain and France had long wanted to wrest from the British. In 1779, after France had allied with the United States, Spain joined France in the war effort; one of their first actions was to launch a massive joint assault on Gibraltar that turned into a siege. By all accounts, the British soldiers defending “the rock” suffered unimaginable hardships while serving with incredible valor and fortitude. The defense of Gibraltar was the singular British triumph of the war, one that helped secure the future global dominance of the British Empire. The representatives of the City of London—and, indeed, many Britons—celebrated the successful defense of Gibraltar as a way to compensate for the loss of their thirteen North American colonies.[2]
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