Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

“Washington Crossing the Delaware” is often seen as an iconic American image. However, it was not painted by an American, nor was it painted in America. It is also far from an accurate depiction of the event in question, because that was not the artist’s intention.

 Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816-68) was born in Baden-Württemberg (now part of Germany) but emigrated with his family to the United States when he was nine years old. He trained as an artist and returned to Germany in 1841 to study at the Königliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. He lived in Germany until 1859 when he settled again in the United States where he spent the rest of his life.

Leutze was inspired throughout his life by the principles of freedom and democracy which he saw embodied in the history of the United States, and much of his work as an artist was devoted to expressing those ideals on canvas. “Washington Crossing the Delaware” is a painting that embodies this motivation.

“Washington Crossing the Delaware”

It was painted in Germany in 1850, with a second version painted in 1851. It is this later painting that is currently exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and of which countless reproductions have been made. The 1850 version was destroyed during a British bombing raid on Bremen in 1942. The painting is very large, measuring some 149 by 255 inches (12 by 21 feet, or 378m by 648 centimetres).

The painting depicts an event during the American War of Independence when, on the night of 25th/26th December 1776, General George Washington took an army eastwards across the Delaware River in order to launch a surprise attack on the town of Trenton, New Jersey, which was garrisoned by a force of 1,500 troops from Germany (the “Hessians”) who were fighting alongside the British.

Crossing the river should not, in itself, have been an especially notable event, as the Delaware was not particularly wide at this location and armies had crossed it fairly regularly during the course of the war to this point. Washington had in fact crossed the river the other way a few months previously. However, conditions were not good on this particular night as the weather was poor and a strong wind was blowing. The main problem was the ice that stuck to the boats and had to be hacked off as they crossed. These factors made the crossing both dangerous and daring.

The significance of the event was that it marked a turning point in the war in that the overwhelming victory that followed the crossing had been preceded by a series of defeats and reverses. Morale had been falling among the Americans but news of Washington’s victory at Trenton changed all that.

Leutze’s painting, created 74 years after the crossing, was therefore intended to symbolize the spirit of victory as well as to portray Washington as a hero. It was never intended to be an accurate depiction of an event that happened 40 years before the artist was born and on a river thousands of miles from where he was living. Indeed, the river has more in common with the Rhine in Germany than the Delaware in the United States.

In the painting, Washington is shown standing on a boat that is being propelled across the river by poles and oars. The river is choked by blocks of jagged ice that his companions are clearing a way through. Behind Washington the Stars and Stripes are held proudly by another officer (who is thought to represent James Monroe who was to be the fifth US President). Other boats can be seen in which men and horses are following Washington’s boat.

Everything in this painting points to the heroism of George Washington, with all sorts of devices used to drive the point home. The light of the low sun, veiled by a stormy sky, forms a bright halo for Washington and the flag. The lines formed by the poles and oars, the flag and Washington’s figure all slope in the same direction to stress that progress and victory are inevitable. Despite the obstacles, the courage of the people on the boat will prevail.

As has often been pointed out, there are many errors and anachronisms in “Washington Crossing the Delaware”. The river is wrong (too wide), as is the boat (wrong type), and so is the flag (not in use at the time). Washington would not have been standing up proudly under the circumstances, and he would not have been in the leading boat. The crossing was at night. Indeed, there is very little about this painting that can be taken as a true portrayal of the event in question, apart from the fact that it did actually take place.

The painting’s symbolic importance

However, none of this really matters, because what Leutze was doing was offering an allegory rather than a depiction of a real event. At the time of the painting’s creation the United States was expanding to the Pacific, by means of its victory in the Mexican Wars, and thousands of settlers were moving west to colonize new lands.

Leutze was therefore celebrating this new venture by idealising a much older one. On board the boat with Washington can be seen a cross-section of people who represent Americans of the mid-19^th century. They are pioneers, farmers and settlers, rather than soldiers, and there is also a freed black slave among their number. They are led by an iconic hero towards new promised lands.

“Washington Crossing the Delaware” is misunderstood if the viewer believes that he or she is seeing an accurate representation of General George Washington leading an army into battle. However, if they see it as an allegory of a young nation striding forwards towards a prosperous future based on freedom and justice for all, they will be a lot closer to understanding its message. The painting works first and foremost at an emotional level rather than as a historical document.

© John Welford