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.
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