The painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware was painted in 1851 by Emanuel Leutze. He was born in 1816, in Wurttemburg, Germany. He and his family moved to the United States in 1825. He started his painting career in Philadelphia after a short time immigrating to the U.S. Unfortunately, when his father became ill Leutze had to focus on supporting the family instead of art. He went back to his studies of painting in 1834 with the help of John Rubens Smith (1775-1849), known for his paintings and print works. First Leutze started a business painting portraits, five dollars for every painting. Afterwards, he received many suggestions to go study in Europe after painting a few historical paintings which were noticed by some of the American public.
In 1940, Leutze registered for the Dusseldorf Academy in Germany to study to become a history painter. When he got bored staying at
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He brought it to the United States. It was his biggest success and still to this day hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Leutze spent the rest of his life painting some other famous paintings, including his self portrait now hanging in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. This portrait inspired other painters to paint their own like his. In 1868, Emanuel Leutze died from a heat stroke, only being fifty-two years old.
The Washington Crossing the Delaware is a well-known painting representing American history. It shows the night of December 25th to 26th, 1776, when General George Washington led his revolutionary troops across the Delaware River. They planned to surprise and attack the Hessian and British troops outside of Trenton, New Jersey. It is about twelve feet high and twenty-one feet long, being one of the largest pictures in the Metropolitan Museum. This painting reminds Americans of the revolutionary troop’s struggle for American