Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Capture of Major Andre
1845
Asher Brown Durand, painter (1796-1886); Alfred Jones (1819-1900), James Smillie (1807-1885), Robert Hinshelwood (b. 1812), engravers; American Art Union, publisher J. Dalton
USA: New York, New York
Engraving on paper with watercolor
overall: 13"h x 17-5/8"w
Special Acquisitions Fund
74.2.8

Capture of Major Andre colored engraving; scene of four men, two with guns and two well dressed; landscape in background, horse; hat and shoes on ground in foreground; beneath image reads "PAINTED BY A. B. DURAND/ FIGURES ENGd. BY ALFRED JONES/ LANSCAPE ENGd. BY SMILLIE & HINSHELWOOD./ THE CAPTURE OF MAJOR ANDRE./ From a painting by. A. B. Durand in the possesion of the Honble. James K. Pauling/ Published by the American Art Union exclusively for the members 1845./ Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1846 by the American Art Union in the Clerk's Office of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York./ PRINTED BY J. DALTON."; figures engraved by Alfred Jones, landscapes by James Smillie and Robert Hinshelwood after a painting by Asher B. Durand.

In 1780 three New York militiamen stopped and searched British Major John André—on a mission to assist American turncoat Benedict Arnold with his scheme to surrender West Point to the British—and found that André had secret papers hidden in his boot. The American Art Union, which distributed engravings of contemporary paintings to subscribers who paid five dollars a year, published this print of the dramatic scene for its members in 1845.