Benjamins West’s 1783 painting The Treaty of Paris (above) was meant to depict all the participants—both American and British—in the peace negotiations that were to formally end the American Revolution. All of the Americans agreed to be in the painting, but the entire British delegation refused to pose; consequently, the painting was never finished (as can be seen here by the blank spaces on the right-hand side). Some historians say that the glaringly obvious lack of a British presence is symbolic of the “deep geopolitical antagonisms” that continued after the close of the war and the “tentative nature of the peace” that was to follow. Public domain image courtesy of Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.