Constantino Brumidi spent the last 25 years of his life decorating the U.S. Capitol with frescoes and murals. He painted this work as a preliminary sketch for his fresco, The Signing of the First Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, completed in 1874 and located in the Brumidi Corridors of the U.S. Capitol. The painting illustrates the signers of both the 1782 and 1783 Peace Treaties, which formally ended the American Revolution. The first four men depicted in the painting are (left to right) John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. Also pictured are the British commissioner Richard Oswald (with back to viewer), and secretary to the American delegation William Temple Franklin. Before Brumidi began a fresco or mural project, he would prepare small oil sketches of each scene, which he submitted for approval. Another preparatory sketch by Brumidi, Telegraph, is also in the Senate Collection.