Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States

This scene shows Philadelphia in 1787, but it was painted much later, in 1940, as the country marked 150 years of its Constitution and watched war spread across Europe. Congressman Sol Bloom pushed for a grand picture of the founding moment, and the illustrator Howard Chandler Christy got the job. The canvas is huge, about 18 by 26 feet, so large that Christy painted it in a sail loft at the Washington Navy Yard. George Washington stands raised on a platform at the right; Benjamin Franklin sits heavily at the centre. Christy worked to give the delegates real faces, drawing on old portraits, though for some he simply had to invent a likeness. Since late 1941 it has hung along a staircase in the House wing of the Capitol, where members pass it every working day.