Washington Crossing the Delaware

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816-July 18, 1868) was a German-born American painter.

Leutze was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Württemberg, Germany but was brought to America as a child. He was notable for his famous historical painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. It is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

At the age of twenty-five he had earned enough to take himself to Düsseldorf 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 Düsseldorf Art Union.

In 1860 he was commissioned by the U.S. Congress to decorate a stairway in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, for which he painted a large composition, Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way.

Late in life, he became a member of the National Academy of Design.

He died in Washington, D.C. in his 53rd year.