Description
Emanuel Leutze’s painting Washington Crossing the Delaware is an iconic work depicting one of the most dramatic moments of the American Revolution.
The oil painting on canvas depicts George Washington, then a general in the American Revolutionary War, crossing the Delaware River with his troops on the night of December 25–26, 1776. The crossing immediately set the stage for Washington’s surprise attack on the Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey.
However, what many people do not know is that the best-known version of the painting, currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is not the original.
The first version of the painting was created in Germany in 1851, but was destroyed in a fire in 1942 during World War II. However, Leutze had painted a replica of the work in 1850, which is housed at the Washington, D.C., Museum of Art. This version is actually larger than the original and was created to ensure that the work would not be lost in the event of a disaster.
Another interesting fact is that the painting depicts a historical event the artist never witnessed, since Leutze was born in Germany in 1816 and the Battle of Trenton took place in 1776. Instead, he relied on descriptions and accounts from eyewitnesses, as well as his own imagination, to create the painting.
Washington Crossing the Delaware ranks No. 80 on the list of famous paintings