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Washington Crossing the Delaware
Artist:
George Caleb Bingham
(American, 1811-1879)
Date: 1856-71
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Overall: 36 5/8 x 57 1/2 in. (93 x 146.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 48 x 69 1/8 x 5 1/2 in. (121.9 x 175.6 x 14 cm)
Classification: American art
Credit Line: Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in honor of Walter P. Chrysler, Sr.
Object number: 83.589
Terms
- People
- Boats
- George Washington
- American Revolution
- War
- Soldiers
- U.S. history
- Military
- Blue
- White
- Green
- Yellow
- Red
- Gray
In Collection(s)
On view
DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. Washington stands at the apex of a pyramid of figures, on horseback. Bingham portrays Washington and his crew riding on a broad, flat-bottomed raftboat, through icy waters; the boat seems to proceed directly toward the viewer.
Exhibition History"Louisville Industrial Exhibition: Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture with a Classification of the Natural History Department, 1873," Louisville, Ky., 1873. (Exh. cat. no. 43)
"A Loan Collection of Paintings, Etchings and Engravings Owned by Residents of Kansas City," The Fine Arts Institute of Kansas City, Mo., December 6 - 16, 1909. (Exh. cat. no. 10)
"George Caleb Bingham, Sesquicentennial Exhibition 1811/1861," William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Mo., March 16 - April 30, 1961.
"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. p. 90A)
"Treasures from The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tenn., June 12 - September 5, 1977. (Exh. cat. no. 30)
"From Veneziano to Pollock," Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., May 18 - June 24, 1984. (Exh. cat. pp. 20-22)
"Picturing History: American Painting, 1770-1930," IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, N.Y., September 28 - November 27, 1993; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 29 - April 2, 1994; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Tex., May 1 - July 10, 1994.
"Vice Versa: German Painters in America - American Painters in Germany," Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany, September 26 - December 1, 1996.
"George Washington, Virginian," Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va., February 22 - October 1999; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tenn., November 1999 - January 2000; Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Wash., February - June 2000.
"Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950," The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ga., February 8 - April 11, 2004; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Fla., April 25 - July 11, 2004; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky., September 14 - December 12, 2004; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Tex., January 16 - April 10, 2005.
"Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006.
"Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008.
"American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013.
"A Loan Collection of Paintings, Etchings and Engravings Owned by Residents of Kansas City," The Fine Arts Institute of Kansas City, Mo., December 6 - 16, 1909. (Exh. cat. no. 10)
"George Caleb Bingham, Sesquicentennial Exhibition 1811/1861," William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Mo., March 16 - April 30, 1961.
"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. p. 90A)
"Treasures from The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tenn., June 12 - September 5, 1977. (Exh. cat. no. 30)
"From Veneziano to Pollock," Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., May 18 - June 24, 1984. (Exh. cat. pp. 20-22)
"Picturing History: American Painting, 1770-1930," IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, N.Y., September 28 - November 27, 1993; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 29 - April 2, 1994; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Tex., May 1 - July 10, 1994.
"Vice Versa: German Painters in America - American Painters in Germany," Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany, September 26 - December 1, 1996.
"George Washington, Virginian," Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va., February 22 - October 1999; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tenn., November 1999 - January 2000; Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Wash., February - June 2000.
"Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950," The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Ga., February 8 - April 11, 2004; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Fla., April 25 - July 11, 2004; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky., September 14 - December 12, 2004; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Tex., January 16 - April 10, 2005.
"Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006.
"Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008.
"American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013.
Label textGeorge Caleb Bingham
American, 1811–1879
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1856–71
Oil on canvas
On Christmas night, 1776, General George Washington’s army crossed the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on British forces at Trenton, New Jersey. His victory
was a turning point in the American Revolution and became a favorite subject among later generations of painters. The fame of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) inspired this heroic scene by genre painter George Caleb Bingham. As weary soldiers row through the icy waters, Bingham presents Washington above on horseback, an elegant ideal of masculinity and leadership.
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in honor of Walter P. Chrysler, Sr. 83.589
American, 1811–1879
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1856–71
Oil on canvas
On Christmas night, 1776, General George Washington’s army crossed the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on British forces at Trenton, New Jersey. His victory
was a turning point in the American Revolution and became a favorite subject among later generations of painters. The fame of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) inspired this heroic scene by genre painter George Caleb Bingham. As weary soldiers row through the icy waters, Bingham presents Washington above on horseback, an elegant ideal of masculinity and leadership.
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in honor of Walter P. Chrysler, Sr. 83.589
Published References
Weekly Missouri, _Statesmen_ Columbia, Missouri (March 14, 1856): 3-4.
Kansas City Newspaper, "For the Ex-Confederates: Works of the Late G.C. Bingham to be Sold March 25," _Kansas City Star_ (March 18, 1893): 5-1.
Kansas City Newspaper, "The Bingham Paintings Sold," _Kansas City Star_ (March 25, 1893): 1-6.
Kansas City Newspaper, "The Bingham Paintings," _Kansas City Journal_ (March 25, 1893): 2-1.
Kansas City Newspaper, "Sold at Auction: The Best of General Bingham's Paintings Went at Low Prices," _Kansas City Journal_ (March 25, 1893): 1-6.
Kansas City Newspaper, "Reminiscences of Bingham's son, J. Rollins Bingham," _Kansas City Star_ (December 5, 1909): 13-1.
Helen Fern Rusk, _George Caleb Bingham: The Missouri Artist_ (Jefferson City, Mo., 1917), 64, 123, plate XXXV.
Albert Christ-Janer, _George Caleb Bingham of Missouri: The Story of an Artist_ (New York, 1940), 112.
John Francis McDermott, _George Caleb Bingham, River Portraitist_ (Norman, Okla., 1959), 121, 163, 182, 240, plate 79.
Maurice E. Bloch, _George Caleb Bingham_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 104-105, 232-234, plate 181.
Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, no. 90A.
Dennis Anderson, "Bingham Added to Norfolk Art Treasures," _Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 5, no. 4 (April 1976): not paged.
Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya, _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._, exh. cat., Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tenn., 1977, no. 30.
Ernest Goldstein, _Let's Get Lost in a Painting, Emanuel Leutze, "Washington Crossing The Delaware"_ (Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1983). Mentioned and illustrated in this publication.
Thomas W. Sokolowski and Thomas W. Styron, _From Veneziano to Pollock: Masterworks Donated to The Chrysler Museum by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._, exh. cat., The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1984, 20-22.
David W. Steadman, "Ten Masterworks!" _Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 14 (June 1984).
"La Chronique des Arts: Principales Acquisitions des Musées en 1984," _Gazette des Beaux-Arts Supplément_ VI Période, Tome CV, no. 1394 (March 1985): 75.
E. Maurice Bloch, _The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné_ (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), 101, 210-211, no. 299.
Michael Edward Shapiro, et al., _George Caleb Bingham_, exh. cat., The Saint Louis Art Museum, Mo., 1990, 86-87, 161, 164, fig. 13.
Nancy Rash, _The Painting & Politics of George Caleb Bingham_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 220-221, no. 68.
Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_ (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 105, no. 83.
Michael Edward Shapiro, _George Caleb Bingham_ (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with National Museum of American Art, 1993), 108-109, 138.
_The Social Studies_ Vol. 88, no. 4 (July/August 1997) :b/w ill. on cover.
Nelson D. Lankford, ed., _The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_ 107, no. 1 (Winter 1999): 60.
Charles C. Eldredge, _Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950_, exh. cat., Southeastern Art Museum Directors Consortium, Columbus Museum, Ga., 2004, 82-83, no. 7. ISBN: 0820325694
David Hackett Fischer, _Washington's Crossing_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 436-437.
Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 72-73, no. 39.
The History Channel's Mount Vernon Team, _Mount Vernon Exhibit Videos_, Stamford, CT, The History Channel, 2006.
Cherbosque, C., _Washington Crossing The Delaware and Paul Conrad: Dual Agents of Historical Consciousness and Memory_ PhD. Diss., Claremont Graduate University, 2007.
Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 62, fig. 64.
Edwin G. York, _Opportunity Valley: A History of the Delaware River Valley before 1800_ (Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation, 2007), 159.
Paul Aron, _Why the Turkey Didn't Fly_ (Williamsburg, VA: the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2013) 72.
Provenance
Collection of the Artist; Artist's estate sale, 1879 (no. 2); Findlay's Art Store, Kansas City, Mo., 1893; Thomas Hoyle Mastin, Kansas City, Mo., and heirs, to Mrs. Thomas E. Keck, Kansas City, Mo.; Butterfield and Butterfield Auctioneers, Seattle, Wash., June 30, 1975 (lot #261); Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, 1976; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1976; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. in memory of Walter P. Chrysler, Sr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1983.
Catalogue EntryGeorge Caleb Bingham
Augusta County, Va. 1811-1879 Kansas City, Mo.
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1856-71
Oil on canvas, 36 5/8 × 57 1/2 in. (93 × 146 cm)
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in Honor of Walter P. Chrysler, Sr., 83.589
References: E. Maurice Bloch, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné, Columbia, Mo., 1986, pp. 101, 210-11, no. 299; Nancy Rash, The Painting and Politics of George Caleb Bingham, New Haven, 1991, pp. 220-21; Michael Edward Shapiro, George Caleb Bingham, New York, 1993, pp. 108-11, 138.
In groundbreaking genre paintings like his 1845 Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), George Caleb Bingham created enduring images of frontier life among the trappers and boatmen of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Bingham achieved success, too, with both portraits and political genre scenes. (He himself was elected to the Missouri state legislature in 1848.) It was as a portrait painter that he first gained fame in the mid-1830s in Missouri, where he had moved with his family from his native Virginia in 1819. Bingham created many of his genre pictures for New York's influential American Art-Union, which from 1845 to 1852 regularly purchased his paintings and distributed them, as well as engravings made after them, to an Eastern audience eager for images of contemporary frontier life. Well aware of the profit to be made from reproductive engravings, Bingham also collaborated with Philadelphia printmaker John Sartain, who produced prints after several of his pictures.
Throughout his career Bingham also worked to establish himself as a painter of elevated historical subjects, in an effort to obtain the lucrative government commissions and wider reputation that such pictures often brought. His efforts in this area were largely frustrated, however, and he produced only a handful of history paintings. One of the most important of these rare works is his stirring tribute to American Revolutionary War heroism, Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Inspired by Emanuel Leutze's famous picture of the same subject (1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Bingham began preliminary work on Washington Crossing the Delaware in Columbia, Missouri, in early 1856. He had probably seen Leutze's painting in 1851, when it was exhibited in New York. In January of 1855 he wrote to his friend James Sidney Rollins that he hoped to produce a picture of Washington "connected with some historical incident, in a manner that would rival the far famed picture by Leutze." Bingham's resolve was no doubt strengthened after he met Leutze while studying in Düsseldorf in 1856-58.
Bingham initially hoped that the project would develop into a commission from the Missouri state legislature. When this did not happen, his work on the painting slowed considerably. It was only in 1871, with encouragement from Sartain (who wished to make a print after it), that Bingham completed the picture. It remained with the artist until his death and was finally sold to Thomas Hoyle Mastin of Kansas City in the 1893 auction of the Bingham estate.
Like Leutze, Bingham placed Washington at the apex of a pyramid of figures and made dramatic use of light to emphasize the stalwart, firm-jawed general. But while Leutze showed Washington in profile, standing in a narrow rowboat moving laterally across the ice-choked river, Bingham portrayed him frontally and on horseback, riding upon a broad, flat-bottomed raftboat proceeding directly toward the viewer. Bingham's more commanding, iconic equestrian image and his use of a raft may have been inspired by another mid-nineteenth-century Revolutionary War river scene, William T. Ranney's Marion Crossing the Pedee (c. 1850; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth).
JCH
Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 72-73, no. 39.
Augusta County, Va. 1811-1879 Kansas City, Mo.
Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1856-71
Oil on canvas, 36 5/8 × 57 1/2 in. (93 × 146 cm)
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in Honor of Walter P. Chrysler, Sr., 83.589
References: E. Maurice Bloch, The Paintings of George Caleb Bingham: A Catalogue Raisonné, Columbia, Mo., 1986, pp. 101, 210-11, no. 299; Nancy Rash, The Painting and Politics of George Caleb Bingham, New Haven, 1991, pp. 220-21; Michael Edward Shapiro, George Caleb Bingham, New York, 1993, pp. 108-11, 138.
In groundbreaking genre paintings like his 1845 Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), George Caleb Bingham created enduring images of frontier life among the trappers and boatmen of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Bingham achieved success, too, with both portraits and political genre scenes. (He himself was elected to the Missouri state legislature in 1848.) It was as a portrait painter that he first gained fame in the mid-1830s in Missouri, where he had moved with his family from his native Virginia in 1819. Bingham created many of his genre pictures for New York's influential American Art-Union, which from 1845 to 1852 regularly purchased his paintings and distributed them, as well as engravings made after them, to an Eastern audience eager for images of contemporary frontier life. Well aware of the profit to be made from reproductive engravings, Bingham also collaborated with Philadelphia printmaker John Sartain, who produced prints after several of his pictures.
Throughout his career Bingham also worked to establish himself as a painter of elevated historical subjects, in an effort to obtain the lucrative government commissions and wider reputation that such pictures often brought. His efforts in this area were largely frustrated, however, and he produced only a handful of history paintings. One of the most important of these rare works is his stirring tribute to American Revolutionary War heroism, Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Inspired by Emanuel Leutze's famous picture of the same subject (1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Bingham began preliminary work on Washington Crossing the Delaware in Columbia, Missouri, in early 1856. He had probably seen Leutze's painting in 1851, when it was exhibited in New York. In January of 1855 he wrote to his friend James Sidney Rollins that he hoped to produce a picture of Washington "connected with some historical incident, in a manner that would rival the far famed picture by Leutze." Bingham's resolve was no doubt strengthened after he met Leutze while studying in Düsseldorf in 1856-58.
Bingham initially hoped that the project would develop into a commission from the Missouri state legislature. When this did not happen, his work on the painting slowed considerably. It was only in 1871, with encouragement from Sartain (who wished to make a print after it), that Bingham completed the picture. It remained with the artist until his death and was finally sold to Thomas Hoyle Mastin of Kansas City in the 1893 auction of the Bingham estate.
Like Leutze, Bingham placed Washington at the apex of a pyramid of figures and made dramatic use of light to emphasize the stalwart, firm-jawed general. But while Leutze showed Washington in profile, standing in a narrow rowboat moving laterally across the ice-choked river, Bingham portrayed him frontally and on horseback, riding upon a broad, flat-bottomed raftboat proceeding directly toward the viewer. Bingham's more commanding, iconic equestrian image and his use of a raft may have been inspired by another mid-nineteenth-century Revolutionary War river scene, William T. Ranney's Marion Crossing the Pedee (c. 1850; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth).
JCH
Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 72-73, no. 39.
