<P> Washington Crossing the Delaware is an 1851 oil - on - canvas painting by the German - American artist Emanuel Leutze . </P> <P> It commemorates General George Washington during his famous crossing of the Delaware River with the Continental Army on the night of December 25--26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War . That action was the first move in a surprise attack against the German Hessian allied mercenary forces at Trenton, New Jersey, in the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26 . </P> <P> The original was part of the collection at the Kunsthalle in Bremen, Germany, and was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942, during World War II . Leutze painted two more versions, one of which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City . The other was in the West Wing reception area of the White House in Washington, D.C.; but in March 2015, was put on display at The Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, Minnesota . </P> <P> Emanuel Leutze grew up in America, then returned to Germany as an adult, where he conceived the idea for this painting during the Revolutions of 1848 . Hoping to encourage Europe's liberal reformers through the example of the American Revolution, and using American tourists and art students as models and assistants, among them Worthington Whittredge and Andreas Achenbach, Leutze finished the first painting in 1850 . Just after it was completed, the first version was damaged by fire in his studio, subsequently restored, and acquired by the Kunsthalle Bremen . On September 5, 1942, during World War II, it was destroyed in a bombing raid by the Allied forces . </P>

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