Washington Crossing the Delaware: Restoring an American Masterpiece [adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 69, no. 2 (Fall, 2011)] - MetPublications

Washington Crossing the Delaware: Restoring an American Masterpiece
[adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 69, no. 2 (Fall, 2011)]

Barratt, Carrie Rebora (2011)

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Description

Emanuel Leutze's lifesize Washington Crossing the Delaware commemorates the critical moment in the American Revolution when George Washington led a surprise attack against troops supporting the British forces in Trenton. When Leutze created the painting in 1850, after he had returned from America to his native Germany, he was hoping to rally support for the revolutionary movements then sweeping Europe. He sent the work to New York in 1851, and within four months 50,000 people had paid to see it. Today the painting is an icon of American visual culture and one of the most beloved objects in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 2007, Leutze's masterpiece became the focus of the most ambitious conservation and reframing project in the museum's history. This book is a behind-the-scenes report on that project, prefaced by an account of the history of the painting's acquisition and display at the museum.

Table of contents

Washington Crossing the Delaware and the Metropolitan Museum
Carrie Rebora Baratt, Associate Director for Collections and Administration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware through Conservators' Eyes
Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, Conservators at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut, and independent conservators

Setting a Jewel: Re-creating the Original Frame for Washington Crossing the Delaware
Eli Wilner and Suzanne Smeaton, Eli Wilner & Company, New York

About the authors

Carrie Rebora Barratt is Associate Director for Collections and Administration at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, of the New London, Connecticut art conservation firm Mayer & Myers, undertook the treatment of the painting.

Suzanne Smeaton and Eli Wilner oversaw the design and carving of its new frame at Eli Wilner & Company, New York.

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