Kerr Eby, born Tokyo, Japan 1889-died - Washington and Lee at Monmouth (cancelled plate from the portfolio The - ca. 1932 - T-Shirt

This etching shows George Washington confronting General Charles Lee on the field at the Battle of Monmouth, a tense moment of command in the heat of the fight.

Visual Elements & Composition

The image is built almost entirely from cream paper tones and deep sepia black, with a small grey accent carrying the shadows. A mounted officer in a tricorn hat raises his sword at the centre, while a horse and rider, a woman in a wide-brimmed hat riding behind him, and a line of musket-carrying infantry advance along diagonal lines that drive the eye across the scene. Smoke rises over burning buildings, and a fallen soldier lies in the foreground, with distant riders receding into the background.

Meaning & Symbolism

The etching records a turning point in the Revolutionary War, when Washington intercepted Lee as he withdrew and personally steadied the Continental Army. The raised sword and advancing ranks signal authority and resolve, while the smoke and wounded soldier make the cost of the fight plain. Kerr Eby, an American artist born in Tokyo, produced the work in the early 1930s as part of a portfolio on the American military past, using intaglio printmaking to render these wartime moments with expressive line.

Who Wears This Design

Etching rewards close looking, and this composition rewards it on a shirt too: the crowded diagonals, the stark contrast of sepia on cream, and the figures on horseback and on foot all read clearly when worn across the chest. Wearing it puts a single, dramatic episode from 1778 in front of you, drawn in the fine, dense lines of a historic print.