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<\/p>\nEver seen it?<\/p>\n
If you grew up in the United States or have ever made a trip to the Met, you\u2019ve likely seen this giant painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/b> by artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. And even if none of those ring true, you\u2019ve probably seen a parody of the painting featuring Darth Vader or Richard Nixon or a bunch of adorable puppies (we\u2019re not sure this last one exists, but it probably does).<\/p>\n
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Basically – Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em> is uber famous.<\/p>\n And with good reason: it depicts one of the most pivotal moments of the American Revolution, when George Washington stages his sneak attack of a Hessian camp on Christmas Day. Before this attack, many thought the American cause was about to die out.<\/p>\n After it?<\/p>\n Well, we all know how history goes.<\/p>\n Aside from the famous moment the painting depicts, it\u2019s also just a pretty epic work of art. It\u2019s huge, taking up an entire wall of the Met, and caused a gigantic frenzy when it first came out. To this day, gaggles of school children visit the painting every day.<\/p>\n But Leutze took some, shall we say, artistic liberties with the scene.<\/p>\n In other words\u2026 it\u2019s super wrong.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at why.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you ever been on the Delaware River in December?<\/p>\n It\u2019s cold, sure.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not chunks of dangerous icebergs floating in the water cold.<\/p>\n At best, it\u2019s probably got some sheet ice (that would make paddling boats across really annoying).<\/p>\n Leutze took some artistic liberties with the icebergs, making the scene much more dangerous and exciting than it actually was. Even before global warming got really bad, the Delaware didn\u2019t exactly look like the waters around the North Pole.<\/p>\n Speaking of danger – you know what\u2019s absurdly dangerous in this painting?<\/p>\n George Washington\u2019s pose.<\/p>\n That\u2019s right. Have you ever been on a tiny, rocking boat?<\/p>\n What about a tiny, rocking boat surrounded by (historically inaccurate) icebergs?<\/p>\n If you ever have, you\u2019ll probably remember that you weren\u2019t standing up, with one leg propped against the side of the boat, wig billowing in the wind like our pal George in this painting.<\/p>\n George Washington\u2019s pose makes absolutely no sense for the context of the image, except for the fact that he looks majestic AF. In reality, he was probably hunched over, shielding himself against the icy winds and trying to, you know, keep from being spotted by the Hessian soldiers he was LEADING A SNEAK ATTACK AGAINST.<\/p>\n He was also probably trying to stay in the boat, not fall out in those choppy waters, but you know, point proven.<\/p>\n Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em> is so epic that we often forget the actual historical context that surrounds the painting.<\/p>\n Such as the fact that the painting depicts a sneak attack on Hessian troops. And when do sneak attacks (including this one) usually happen?<\/p>\n Yeah, that\u2019s right – they usually happen at night.<\/p>\n When Washington led his army to attack the Hessian troops, they left in the middle of the night, so as better to surprise the celebrating soldiers. The Continental Army crossed the Delaware under the cover of darkness, without the benefit of the flattering light Leutze used.<\/p>\n Now, to Leutze\u2019s credit, he did make paint an overcast sky, but I have to imagine that the Hessian soldiers would have easily spotted George and Co. if they actually made the crossing in light this bright.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll give Leutze a pass on this one, though, because a painting of the same scene in the dead of night would have been pretty dark.<\/p>\n The central figure of this painting is easily recognizable, even if you don\u2019t know much about American history. The stately pose, the majestic wig, the tricorn hat – it\u2019s George Washington, of course!<\/p>\n Only the George Washington depicted in this painting is what I like to think of as \u201cOld George.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOld George\u201d is the first president of the United States, an elderly statesman who just wants to go home and sit under his own vine and fig tree, taking a moment alone in the shade. (Are you singing One Last Time<\/em> yet?)<\/p>\n But although \u201cOld George\u201d may be how we picture the leader in our contemporary collective mind, George Washington was not, in fact, always old.<\/p>\n He was actually young once.<\/p>\n Gasp!<\/p>\n At the time of Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em>, George Washington was a spry military commander in his 40s, not a distinguished statesman in his 60s. Leutze added a few decades onto dear George, probably to make him more recognizable to his audience. Leutze\u2019s trick worked, but we bet George Washington is wishing that at least one image of his likeness survived that doesn\u2019t portray him as a perpetual sexaganarian.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, do Leutze\u2019s historical inconsistencies make Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em> a worse painting?<\/p>\n Of course not! If anything, they make the painting even more iconic, judging by the fact that it\u2019s such a well-recognized image.<\/p>\n What\u2019s important to remember in this, and in other scenarios, is that we\u2019re often seeing the artist\u2019s interpretation of events, not how the events actually unfolded.<\/p>\n And sometimes, the actual history can be just as (if not more) interesting than the artistic interpretation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington Crossing the Delaware is an incredibly famous painting. It’s also incredibly wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":15321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334,274],"tags":[],"acf":{"show_faq":false,"faq_title":"","faq_description":"","faq_list_item":null},"yoast_head":"\nReason No. 1 Why Washing Crossing the Delaware<\/em> Is Wrong: The Crazy Icebergs<\/h3>\n
Reason No. 2 Why Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em> Is Wrong: Washington\u2019s Pose<\/h3>\n
Reason No. 3 Why Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em> Is Wrong: The Whole Sunlight Thing<\/h3>\n
Reason No. 4 Washington Crossing the Delaware<\/em> Is Wrong: Washington\u2019s Hair<\/h3>\n
Artistic Interpretation of Washington Crossing The Delaware<\/em><\/h3>\n