Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware is in the American Wing in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. It looms large at more than 12 feet tall and 21 feet wide.
The painting describes the historic moment when General George Washington led the American revolutionary troops across the Delaware River in order to surprise the English and Hessian troops in the Battle of Trenton the day after Christmas in 1776.
The original version of the painting was destroyed in the bombing of Bremen, Germany, in 1942. This surviving version was completed in 1851. In January 2003, the painting was defaced when a former Metropolitan Museum of Art guard glued a picture of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to it. No permanent damage was caused.
There are many copies of the painting, one of which is in the West Wing reception area of the White House.
The painting contains an often-discussed historical inaccuracy: the flag in the painting is an anachronism. The original flag of the United States (the "Stars and Stripes" shown in the painting) did not exist at the time of Washington's crossing.
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