Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing The Delaware

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Washington Crossing the Delaware is a painting that depicts George Washington and his men crossing the Delaware River on Christmas morning, 1776. It was illustrated by Emanuel Leutze, a German-American artist who is best known for his adaptations of history on canvas. This version of Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1851 was actually his second rendition of it due to the first version being damaged in a fire. This painting currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where thousands of visitors see it every day. WHAT IS WCTD? Washington Crossing the Delaware’s style and category of painting is a history painting, and it was painted with oil on canvas. The artist uses neutral colors, smooth brush strokes, and makes the art seem realistic, almost as if it was an image copied …show more content…

Like all other history paintings, this composition was designed to show a scene of history, rather than express an opinion or just to look nice. Not only are history paintings meant to emphasize what is painted rather than how it is painted, they are designed to display a certain scene in history without physical movement of the persons present on the painting. Within the category of history paintings, there are many subcategories of history paintings. Religious, mythological, allegorical, literary, and historical are the different styles of history painting. Religious history paintings involve the images of religious figures, or events in religious texts, e.g. Descent from the Cross, by Roger Van Der Weyden. Mythological history paintings attempt to address the questions accompanying topics like the origin of the universe, and unexplainable happenings throughout history and at the times in which the paintings were painted, e.g Bacchus and Ariadne, by Titian. The subcategory of history paintings that Washington Crossing the Delaware is is a historical history painting, meaning the event captured by the brush of Emanuel Leutze was

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