"In 1930, when N. C. Wyeth was finishing a mural featuring George Washington for a bank in
Trenton, New Jersey, he almost fell off the 30-foot-high scaffolding onto the marble floor.
As the artist reported, “From the shock of this experience I had, during the following night,
an amazingly vivid dream.” In his dream, the Battle of Brandywine came to life and Wyeth
documented it in the large painting seen here.

In the early fall Chadds Ford landscape, the artist stands in the foreground on his shaky
scaffolding, listening as General Washington, astride a white horse, recounts the battle.
Behind Washington are puffs of smoke from bursting shells, an artillery wagon, and rows of
British and Colonial troops. Emerging through the trees on the left is the Marquis de Lafayette,
raising his hat as if in greeting. In a letter to his brother, Wyeth confirmed that the boy lost
in his drawing in the bottom left corner, is his son Andrew, who would have been a young teenager
at the time this was painted. N. C. Wyeth remembered that in the dream he was annoyed with
Andrew for ignoring General Washington.

Despite this intriguing story, however, Wyeth hoped this painting would be appreciated for its 'color, pattern and technique.'"