4a: Washington Crossing the Delaware; Emanuel Leutze, 1851

4a: Washington Crossing the Delaware; Emanuel Leutze, 1851

Read, observations.
What is the composition?
How big is the painting?
How does Leutze create the illusion of great distance?
What is calm in this scene? What is chaotic?
Does the boat look safe? The actual boats used in this venture were larger and fit 30-40 men.
-Why did Leutze depict them this way instead?

Related artistic works
- "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is the title of a 1936 sonnet by David Schulman. It refers to the scene in the painting, and is a 14-line rhyming sonnet of which every line is an anagram of the title:
A hard, howling, tossing water scene.
Strong tide was washing hero clean.
"How cold!" Weather stings as in anger.
O Silent night shows war ace danger!

The cold waters swashing on in rage.
Redcoats warn slow his hint engage.
When star general's action wish'd "Go!"
He saw his ragged continentals row.

Ah, he stands - sailor crew went going.
And so this general watches rowing.
He hastens - winter again grows cold.
A wet crew gain Hessian stronghold.

George can't lose war with's hands in;
He's astern - so go alight, crew, and win!

- William H. Powell created a painting that closely resembles Luetze's work, depicting Oliver Perry transferring command from one ship to another during the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The original painting now hangs in the Ohio 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 still very similar.



- "Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth", Leutze's companion piece to Washington Crossing the Delaware is displayed at the University of California, Berkeley.








- In 1953 the American Pop Artist Larry Rivers painted his version of Washington Crossing the Delaware (using the same title) which is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
What elements do the two paintings have in common? What is different?









- Grant Wood makes direct use of Leutze's painting in his own Daughters of Revolution, 1932. The painting is a direct jab at the D.A.R., examining what Wood interpreted as their unfounded elitism.





-New Jersey State quarter: Crossroads of the Revolution