|
Washington Crossing the Delaware, c.1851 World Culture Art Poster Print by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 34x23 | 
 enlarge | Brand: Art.com
Category: Kitchen
List Price: $32.00
Buy New: $31.99
You Save: $0.01
New (2) from $31.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 170358
Dimensions (in): 23 x 34 x 23
ASIN: B000EEVD0I
Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days
|
| Features:
| • | Print Title: Washington Crossing the Delaware, c.1851 | | • | Artist: Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze | | • | Size: 34 x 23 inches | | • | Please visit www.amazon.com/artdotcom to check for promotions from time to time. |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Art.com is the world's largest retailer of art prints, posters, photographs, and framed artwork. With our huge selection of over 400,000 prints, you'll easily find the perfect piece for your home, office, or classroom. Our art is printed on quality paper. When you order framed artwork, the piece is built by our team of in-house professionals. Visit our Amazon store today at www.amazon.com/artdotcom to find Special Offers and search for products based on 'Artist Name' and 'Subject Categories' such as Movie, Music, Vintage, TV, Children, Travel, Kitchen, Museum Art, Animals, Floral, Motivational, and Sports. Art.com is dedicated to providing you with high quality products and service by offering you 100% satisfaction guaranteed. We ship internationally to over 80 countries. Decorate your home today with your favorite pictures that express and celebrate your distinct tastes.
|
| Customer Reviews:
The artistic deification of General George Washington April 27, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
On Christmas night in 1776 approximately 2,400 American troops led by General George Washington crossed from Valley Forge over the Delaware River at McConkey's Ferry in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to surprise a garrison of 1,500 Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey. Having abandoned New York City and lost the Battle of Long Island, Trenton marked the first military victory for Washington and confirmed the leadership ability that would make him the first President of the United States of America. One of the most recognizable paintings in American history, "Washington Crossing the Delaware" depicts not the victorious Washington after the battle, but the grimly determined caught at a moment when the outcome is in doubt and the attack a risky endeavor.
The irony about this famous work is that not only was the artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816-1868) born in Germany, but he painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" in Dusseldorf in 1851, using the Rhine River as his model for the Delaware River. Leutze had visited the United States several times, studying art in Philadelphia as well as paintings of Washington and the general's uniform in a museum. His career was based on painting scenes of American history but his reputation rests entirely on this famous work. The original oil on canvas painting is 12 2/5 high and 21 1/4 long, considerably larger than this 34 x 22.5 inch fine-art print, suitable for the wall of any American history class.
The Washington depicted in this painting is not a man given to fear or doubts. Although Washington and his comrades are traveling right to left in the painting they are actually heading east across the river from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. The actual crossing was done in the dead of night, during a driving snowstorm, and was completed by three in the morning, but the glorification of Washington requires a lighted sky spotlighting his impressive figure. Although the sun would be rising in the east if it were indeed up at that point, the side of Washington's face is as well lit as his profile despite the absence of a legitimate light source. Because the crossing took place at dawn Leutze uses mostly dark tones in the painting, however he uses red to focus on Washington as well using the highlight color in the flag, pants, scarves, cape, and other details. Washington stands out because he appears to be the only object in the boat not in motion: the soldiers are all trying to push the boat across the ice clogged river, the flag is rippling, but the general stands like a rock.
Notice the triangular forms defined by key lines in the painting. The angle of the flagstaff is pretty much the same as the pole used by the figure at the front of the boat. If you extend that pole and along with that of the second one, then you will see they meet above Washington's head. The flow of Washington's red cape extends down along the right arm of the soldier wearing the red sweater (actually it was Colonel John Glover's Marblehead fishermen who had the responsibility of ferrying the troops across the river that night). Even in a boat crowded full of men, the figure of Washington dramatically stands out.
Washington is not the only future president in the painting: James Monroe in the man holding the flag, which is the Betsy Ross design of 13 stars and 13 stripes (which was supposedly created six months after this particular battle). Prince Whipple, the black patriot, is a minor legend of the American Revolution who was actually in Baltimore than night (but putting a black man in Washington's army in a painting done on the eve of the American Civil War is an interesting choice). The biggest alteration from a historical perspective would be the size of the boat itself, which looks rather crammed with a dozen men aboard. Historians believe Washington use a Durham boat, which was flat-bottomed and measured 60 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 42 inches deep. Its draft was 3 1/2 inches when light and 28 inches loaded and it could carry 150 barrels of flour or 600 bushels of corn (i.e., it could carry 17 tons downriver, 2 tons upriver). But by painting a much smaller version of the boat, Leutze heightens the sense of risk and danger, not just to the attack, but also to the crossing itself.
Today the site of the crossing is a National Historic Landmark with the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River a state historic site including a museum. That site includes the assembly area, embankment point, landing area, and the road used by the Continental Army for its attack. There are also four buildings dating from the time of the crossing. On the New Jersey side is Washington Crossing State Park, which includes an overlook to the Delaware River and the place where the Continental Army landed. I can remember visiting the park as a kid and seeing the huge painting of "Washington Crossing the Delaware." Of course, that was a reproduction, since the original hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. While there are other famous paintings of George Washington there as well, such as by Charles Wilson Peale and Gilbert Stuart (no, not that one, another one), it is still Luetze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" that represents the centerpiece of the artistic deification of the Father of Our Country.
|
|
|
| |
