Emanuel Leutze
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816-July 18, 1868) was an American painter.
He was notable for his famous historical painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. It is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, New York.
At the age of twenty-five he had earned enough to take himself to Dsseldorf for a course of art study at the royal academy. Almost immediately he began painting historical subjects, his first work, Columbus before the Council of Salamanca was purchased by the Dsseldorf Art Union.
In 1860 he was commissioned by the United States Congress to decorate a stairway in the Capitol building at Washington, DC, for which he painted a large composition, Westward the Staf of Empire takes its Way.
Late in life, he became a member of the National Academy of Design.
He died in Washington, D.C.
Leutze's painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware contains three errors often discussed by historians. The most egregious, since it involves an out-and-out historical inaccuracy, is the flag being carried. Notice that it is the flag commonly referred to as "The Stars and Stripes." This flag did not exist at the time Washington made his famous crossing . The flag in Leutze's painting was not adopted until June 14, 1777, six months later. Leutze should have shown the Grand Union flag, officially hoisted by Washington himself on January 2, 1776, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the standard of the Continental Army and the first national flag. The other errors, albeit minor in nature, are the boat-- it's the wrong size and shape; and Washington's standing position, while heroic, would likely have resulted in his drowning on that stormy night.
