Penn's Treaty with the Indians

The Treaty of Penn with the Indians, sometimes known as Penn's Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon or more simply Penn's Treaty with the Indians, is an oil painting by Benjamin West, completed in 1771-2. The painting depicts William Penn entering into peace treaty in 1683 with Tamanend, a chief of the Lenape ("Delaware Indians") Turtle Clan, under the shade of an elm tree near the village of Shackamaxon (now Kensington) in Pennsylvania.

Although the Delaware tribe challenged the Walking Purchase of 1737, which some historians have speculated was fraudulently created by William Penn's son, Thomas Penn, the peace between the Lenape Turtle Clan and Penn's successors would endure almost a century, until the Penn's Creek Massacre of 1755.

The treaty William Penn entered into was remarked upon by Voltaire, who called it "... the only treaty never sworn to and never broken."

The painting was commissioned by Thomas Penn - William Penn's son - in 1770 or 1771 and completed in 1771-2. West was a local artist who was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania and grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Like Thomas Penn, West was born into a Quaker family. Also like Thomas Penn, he later turned to the Church of England, however. He studied in Philadelphia but developed as a painter of historic subjects in London, where he was the second president of the Royal Academy of Arts. His reputation for history painting was established in the early 1770s with his painting of The Death of General Wolfe.

...
Wikipedia