This painting is an example of the genre of history painting. It shows George Washington crossing the Delaware River in 1776. History painting was a major movement in art from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Leutze's depiction of Washington's attack on the Hessians at Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776, was a great success in America and in Germany. Leutze began his first version of this subject in 1849. It was damaged in his studio by fire in 1850 and, although restored and acquired by the Kunsthalle Bremen, was again destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942. In 1850, Leutze began this version of the subject, which was placed on exhibition in New York during October of 1851. At this showing Marshall O. Roberts bought the canvas for the then-enormous sum of $10,000. In 1853, M. Knoedler published an engraving of it. Many studies for the painting exist, as do copies by other artists.
Artist: Emanuel Leutze
