Washington Crossing the Delaware is an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by German American artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. It commemorates General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. That action was the first move in a surprise attack against the Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey in the Battle of Trenton.
The original was part of the collection at the Kunsthalle in Bremen, Germany and was destroyed in a British air raid in 1942. Leutze painted a second version which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. There are many copies, one of which is in the West Wing reception area of the White House.
Read more about Washington Crossing The Delaware: History, Composition, Historical Inaccuracies, In Popular Culture, Censorship
Famous quotes containing the word crossing:
“This was charming, no doubt: but they shortly found out
That the Captain they trusted so well
Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,
And that was to tingle his bell.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)