Grand Themes: Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, and American History Painting

First exhibited at the Stuyvesant Hall in New York in 1851, Emanuel Leutze s Washington Crossing the Delaware captured the imagination of many Americans searching for national symbols in a time of sectionalism and disunity. Despite Leutze s aspirations, the exhibition became an opportunity for critics of history painting to stake their positions. As suggested by the book s title, Leutze s epic painting is a touchstone in the evolution of American history painting. It represents a triumphant climax of the American adoption of the Grand Manner, inherited from eighteenth-century English painting, and portends its seemingly inevitable demise. From the painting s gargantuan size, which fitted it only for a grand, public setting, to its focus on an already deified public hero, Leutze s painting presumed a cultural as well as a political consensus a consensus that proved illusory at best. Emanuel Leutze was arguably the most prominent American history painter of his time, and Jochen Wierich argues that Leutze s work became the locus of contemporary debates surrounding the nature of history painting and its future.