| Washington Crossing the Delaware | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Emanuel Leutze |
| Year | 1851 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 378.5 cm × 647.7 cm (149 in × 255 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York, andMinnesota Marine Art Museum,Winona |
Washington Crossing the Delaware is the title of three 1851 oil-on-canvas paintings by theGerman-American artistEmanuel Leutze depicting GeneralGeorge Washington's crossing of the Delaware River with theContinental Army on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during theAmerican Revolutionary War. Washington's covert crossing of the Delaware River that night was the first of several moves, leading to a surprise attack and victory againstHessian forces at theBattle of Trenton inNew Jersey on the morning of December 26.
The original was part of the collection at theKunsthalle inBremen, Germany, and was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942, duringWorld War II. Leutze painted two more versions, one of which is now in theMetropolitan Museum of Art inNew York City. The other was in theWest Wing reception area of theWhite House inWashington, D.C., but in March 2015, was purchased and put on display at theMinnesota Marine Art Museum inWinona, Minnesota. In April 2022Christie's announced that the smaller painting would be sold at auction the following month, for a pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $20 million.[1] It sold for $45 million.
Emanuel Leutze grew up in America, then returned to Germany as an adult, where he conceived the idea for this painting during theRevolutions of 1848. Hoping to encourage Europe's liberal reformers through the example of the American Revolution, and using American tourists and art students as models and assistants, among themWorthington Whittredge andAndreas Achenbach, Leutze finished the first painting in 1850. Just after it was completed, the first version was damaged by fire in his studio,[2] subsequently restored, and acquired by theKunsthalle Bremen. On September 5, 1942, duringWorld War II, it was destroyed in abombing raid by theAllied forces.[3]
The second painting, a full-sized replica of the first, was begun in 1850 and placed on exhibition in New York in October 1851. More than 50,000 people viewed it. The painting was originally bought byMarshall O. Roberts for $10,000—an enormous sum at the time, equivalent to approximately $350,000 in 2021. After changing ownership several times, it was finally donated to theMetropolitan Museum of Art byJohn Stewart Kennedy in 1897.Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth, Leutze's companion piece toWashington Crossing the Delaware is displayed in the Heyns (East) Reading Room ofDoe Library at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.
The painting was lent at least twice in its history. In the early 1950s, it was part of an exhibition inDallas, Texas. Then, beginning in 1952, it was exhibited for several years at the United Methodist Church inWashington Crossing, Pennsylvania, not far from the scene of the painting. Today, it is on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In January 2002, the painting was defaced when a former Metropolitan Museum of Art guard glued a picture of theSeptember 11 attacks to it. No major damage was caused to the painting.[4]
The simple frame that had been with the painting for over 90 years turned out not to be the original frame that Leutze designed. A photograph taken byMathew Brady in 1864 was found in the New-York Historical Society in 2007 showing the painting in a spectacular eagle crested frame. The 12 ft x 21 ft carved replica frame was created using this photo by Eli Wilner & Company in New York City. The carved eagle-topped crest alone is 14 ft wide.
The third version of the painting, a smaller-scale version of the original, hung in theWhite House receiving room from 1979 to 2014. The painting was acquired by Mary Burrichter and Bob Kierlin, who contributed to the founding of theMinnesota Marine Art Museum inWinona, Minnesota, and put on display as the centerpiece of the museum's American collection.[5]
In May 2022, the third version of the painting was auctioned by Christie's and sold for $45 million.[6]
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The painting is notable for its artisticcomposition.General Washington is emphasized by an unnaturally bright sky, while his face catches the upcoming sunlight. The colors consist of mostly dark tones, expected at dawn, and there are red highlights repeated throughout the painting. Aforeshorteningperspective and the distant boats all lend depth to the painting and emphasize the boat carrying Washington.
The men in the boat represent a cross-section of the American colonies, including one in a Scottish bonnet and another of African descent facing backward next to each other in the front. A western rifleman is at the bow, two farmers in broad-brimmed hats are near the back (one with a bandaged head), and one at the stern wearing what appears to be Native American clothing to symbolize that all people in the new United States of America were represented.
According to the 1853 exhibition catalogue, the man standing next to Washington and holding the flag is LieutenantJames Monroe, futurepresident of the United States, and the man leaning over the side is GeneralNathanael Greene.[7] GeneralEdward Hand is shown seated and holding his hat within the vessel.
The flag depicted is anearly version of theflag of the United States (the "Stars and Stripes"), the design of which did not exist at the time of Washington's crossing. The flag's design was first specified in the June 14, 1777, Flag Resolution of theSecond Continental Congress, and flew for the first time on September 3, 1777—well after Washington's crossing in 1776. A more historically accurate flag would have been theContinental Union Flag, hoisted by Washington on January 1, 1776, atSomerville, Massachusetts, as the standard of theContinental Army and the firstnational flag.
Washington's stance, intended to depict him in aheroic fashion, would have been very hard to maintain in the choppy conditions of the crossing. Considering that he is standing in a rowboat, such a stance would have risked capsizing the boat.[8] However, historianDavid Hackett Fischer has argued that everyone would have been standing up to avoid the icy water in the bottom of the boat, as the actualDurham boats used were much larger, had a flat bottom, higher sides, a broad beam (width) of some eight feet and a draft of 24–30 inches.[9]Washington's boats were actually substantially larger than the boat in the painting. Washington and his men sailed on a cargo ship that ranged anywhere between 40 and 60 feet long (12 to 18 m).[10] Also on the ships were heavy artillery and horses,[10] which would not have fit in the boat Leutze painted.
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" is a 1936sonnet byDavid Shulman. It refers to the scene in the painting, and is a 14-line rhyming sonnet of which every line is ananagram of the title.
In 1953, the Americanpop artistLarry Rivers paintedWashington Crossing the Delaware, which is in the collection ofThe Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[11] The painting has also inspired copies byRoy Lichtenstein (an abstract expressionist variant painted c. 1951) andRobert Colescott (a parody titledGeorge Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware painted in 1975).[12]Grant Wood makes direct use of Leutze's painting in his ownDaughters of Revolution. The painting is a direct jab at theDaughters of the American Revolution, scrutinizing what Wood interpreted as their unfounded elitism.
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William H. Powell produced a painting that owes an artistic debt to Leutze's work, depictingOliver Perry transferring command from one ship to another during theBattle of Lake Erie during theWar of 1812. The original painting now hangs in theOhio Statehouse, and Powell later created a larger, more light-toned rendering of the same subject which hangs in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. In both of Powell's works, Perry is shown standing in a small boat rowed by several men in uniform. The Washington painting shows the direction of travel from right to left, and the Perry image shows a reverse direction of motion, but the two compositions are otherwise similar. Both paintings feature one occupant of the boat with a bandaged head.
Liverpool born pop artist,Dirty Hans's painting "British Invasion" showing various rock and pop cultural icons from the 1960s, 70s and 80s in a boat crossing the Hudson River in New York and depictingDavid Bowie as a proxy for George Washington, appears to have drawn heavy influence from this painting[13]
Professional wrestlerLA Knight parodied this painting in his merchandise during his reign asUnited States Champion.[14]
The Far Side comic for October 15, 1986, parodied the painting as "Washington crossing the street".[15]
