Washington Crossing the Delaware

By Emanuel Leutze

Author Award for June 2026

Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" depicts George Washington leading American troops across the icy Delaware River before the surprise attack at Trenton in 1776. Leutze, a German-American artist, painted the scene while living in Europe, hoping the American Revolution would inspire liberal reformers after the failed revolutions of 1848. The version now at the Met is not the original; Leutze's first painting was acquired by the Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany and destroyed in a 1942 bombing raid during World War II.

Though one of the most famous images in American history, the painting is filled with inaccuracies. Washington's boat is too small, his standing pose would have been dangerous, and the flag shown was not yet in use at the time of the crossing. Still, Leutze was more interested in creating a powerful patriotic image than in getting every historical detail right. The painting's large scale and dramatic lighting helped turn the crossing into one of the best-known scenes from the American Revolution.

Year: 1851
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Ownership Stats

Players with unframed copies: 17
Players with framed copies: 22