Beside a large striped tent, French and American commanders gather around a plan under a stormy sky. An officer in a blue coat and red sash points toward the siege lines while George Washington stands beside him, and a young aide kneels at the lower right with a brass instrument. Cavalry and troops wait in the distance beneath rising smoke. The painting shows the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, which the French catalogue dates to October 17, 1781, two days before the British surrender.

The catalogue lists Washington, the comte de Rochambeau and the marquis de Lafayette among the figures. Auguste Couder signed and dated it 1836, the year King Louis-Philippe commissioned it for the new historical museum at Versailles. An enormous canvas, about 15 feet tall and 18 feet wide (465 × 543 cm), it was shown at the Paris Salon of 1837. It belongs to the Palace of Versailles near Paris.