Washington Crossing the Delaware

1851 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

historical

This famous event from the American Revolution was painted by German-born Emanuel Leutze, who spent most of his life in the United States. He painted the first version of this picture (destroyed in World War II) in Düsseldorf, where a school of Romantic painting flourished, and immediately painted a second version - this picture - which was sent to America and exhibited throughout the country. A print published in 1853 gave the painting the status of a national monument, in spite of numerous errors in historical detail (the flag, for example, as depicted here was not introduced until six months after the event).

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About the Artist

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

1816 – 1868

German-born painter who lived in America from 1825 to 1841 and again from 1859 and is usually considered a member of the American School. He is remembered mainly for his Washington Crossing the Delaware (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1851), painted in Düsseldorf, where he spent most of his career, and for another work that similarly appeals more for its patriotic sentiments than for any aesthetic merit - his large mural Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861-62) in the Capitol at Washington. His portraits and rare landscapes are more distinguished, but remain virtually unknown.

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