Painting - George Washington Crossing the Delaware Essay

Painting - George Washington get across the Delaware - Essay ExampleThe essay Painting - George Washington Crossing the Delaware focuses on the George Washington Crossing the Delaware, painted in 1851 by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. The obvious mismatch in dates between the creation of the painting and the actual crossing of the Delaware suggest that this was an event that was painted surface after the fact in fact, well after many of the recognizable men in the boat had been placed in their graves. Understanding a minor about the history of the painting itself, along with the impostureist who painted it, helps to unravel some of the historical elements of the painting, both accurate and inaccurate. Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze was a German-born painter who spent untold of his life hopping back and forth across the Atlantic. He was born in Wurttemberg, Germany in the spring of 1816 and was brought to America as a small boy. It is known that he was in America in 1825 but that by 1841 he was on his way back to Germany again to take a course in art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Bowman, 1995). From his earliest works, one can begin to see his fascination with historical subjects as his first work, purchased by the Dusseldorf Art Union, was entitled Columbus before the Council of Salamanca. According to John Bowmans (1995) essay on the painter, Leutze determined to paint the image of one of the more than decisive moments of the Revolutionary War as a means of supporting the various revolutionary movements that were then taking place in Europe at the time of the painting.