Washington Crossing the Delaware

Portrait of Emmanuel Leutz by William Morris Hunt (1845)

In 1845, William Morris Hunt painted this portrait of his friend, Emmanuel Leutz.http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=34914&coll_keywords=william+morris+hunt&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=0&coll_start=111

Emmanuel Leutz (1816-1868)

excerpts below from http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/georgewashington/

Carrie Barrett, curator of American art at the Metropolitan Museum, notes that most people see the painting (Washington Crossing the Delaware) more as a historical document of the American Revolution than a work of art.

"The subject matter is so overwhelming (that) it doesn't become discussed as a painting so much," Barrett says. "It's a shame. People should know the elements of its creation."

The iconic Washington Crossing wasn't even painted in the United States, but in Germany. In the years following the German Revolution of 1848, Leutze and his artist friends set up shop in a cavernous Dusseldorf studio, entranced by the spirit of uprising . Barbara Groseclose, Leutze's biographer, says that he was drawn to history painting as a way to convey large abstract ideas.

At the moment of creation, the German revolution had all but failed, and like the soldiers surrounding Washington in the painting, the idealistic artist must have felt the sting of a losing battle, mixed with a surge of hope that victory might lie just across the river.

"The promise of democracy was lost just a year into these revolutions. But if you had someone like George Washington at the helm, all could be saved," Barrett says, looking back on Leutze's inspiration.