Washington Crossing the Delaware

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Oil in Canvas

378.5 × 647.7 cm (149 × 255 in)

1851

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816-1868) was a German American history painter.  His most famous painting is, “Washington Crossing the Delaware”.  Leutze began to develop his artistic talents while he sat at the bedside of his ailing father, drawing to pass the hours away.  After his father’s death in 1831 he painted portraits for $5 each to support himself.  In 1834 he took his first art classes and his career began to flourish.  Although historians agree that this is not an accurate representation of Washington ( there is no way he could have stood on that boat as it crossed the perilous waters of the Delaware)  no one doubts the beauty and craftsmanship of this piece. Most people probably don’t realize what trials Leutze endured to bring this beautiful painting to completion.  He finished the first painting in 1850, and shortly after it was damaged by a fire in his studio.  It was subuequently restored and acquired by Kunsthalle Bremen. Then in 1942, in Germany, during WWII, it was destroyed in a bombing raid by the British Royal Air Force.  The second painting, a full size replica of the first, was begun in 1850 and placed in New York on exhibit in 1951.  If it hadn’t been for the second painting we would not be able to enjoy this painting today.

“Leutze wanted to convey the idea of Washington’s heroism and to mythologize him, and you’re not going to do that necessarily by getting terribly hung up on factual information,” said Elizabeth Kornhauser, a curator of American paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “He was creating an operatic theatrical piece