Washington Crossing the Delaware
Washington stands tall in a boat crossing an ice-choked river. The most quoted and most parodied of American history paintings. Full commentary ↓
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Washington Crossing the Delaware is an oil painting by Emanuel Leutze (1851) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 378.5 × 647.7 cm.
In the pictureOn a dark blue river with floating chunks of ice, twelve soldiers are crowded into a boat. Among them George Washington stands tall with one leg forward, looking toward the far shore. Behind him a soldier holds the Stars and Stripes, and the rowers push the ice away. The sky is brightening with the light of dawn, and more boats follow in a line behind.
BackgroundIt depicts the night of Christmas 1776, when Washington crossed the Delaware River to surprise the enemy at Trenton. The painter was Leutze, an American artist working in Germany, who completed it in Düsseldorf in 1851. Historically it gets much wrong. The actual crossing was in the middle of the night, that flag had not yet been created, and anyone standing in such a boat would capsize it. Even so, it became the picture Americans see when they think of their nation's birth. A large work, 6.5 meters wide.
Puzzle tipWith so many figures, this puzzle is rich in clues. Fix Washington and the flag first, then complete the figures in the boat one by one. Place the river pieces by the position of the white chunks of ice, and the sky by its gradient from bright yellow at the bottom to dark gray at the top. It also works well at 300 pieces.
- Artist
- American, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1816–1868 Washington, D.C.
- Culture
- American
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 378.5 x 647.7 cm
- Credit line
- Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
In these collections: Masterpieces Everyone Knows · Winter Masterpiece Puzzles · Sea and Waterside Masterpiece Puzzles
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