This is the central British figure from two different versions of John Trumbull's painting "The Surrender of Cornwallis." Matching the painting to historical events, this figure should represent Charles O'Hara, since he was the officer who actually performed the surrender. And given that Trumbull was known to make an effort to accurately represent the people in his paintings, it should therefore resemble O'Hara -- but... There's always a "but." In fact, there's a whole story for why the French and American figures in the painting are considered accurate while the British are not. Check out the art gallery at American Revolution.org to see the full image, and read their discussion of its drawbacks.

Some time after I originally posted this page with only the left-hand image (which is taken from the 1797 version of the painting), Christopher Bryant provided me with a copy of the miniature portrait shown on O'Hara's main page, and also one of the second version (right) of Trumbull's painting (c1819-20, on display in the US Capitol building). There are notable differences in how the main figures are represented in this version, and the "O'Hara" figure does bear a stronger resemblance to the man in the miniature. In Christopher's far-more-expert opinion, Trumbull may, indeed, have either met O'Hara himself at some point, or at least found an image of him before he executed the second version of the painting.

A correspondent sent me the image below, which shows another version of the Yorktown surrender ceremony. As with the original Trumbull painting, it seems more likely that the main British officer is based on Cornwallis (whom he resembles) rather than O'Hara.

[Thanks to Caroline ("Ima Fish") for sending along the engraving, and of course to Christopher for the expanded information!]