Emanuel Leutze

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

Related Topics:
May 24 - 1816 - July 18 - 1868 - American - Painter

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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.

Related Topics:
Schwäbisch Gmünd - Württemberg - Germany - Washington Crossing the Delaware - Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York

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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.

Related Topics:
Düsseldorf - Royal Academy - Columbus before the Council of Salamanca - Düsseldorf Art Union

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In 1859, Leutze painted a portrait of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney which hangs in the Harvard Law School. In a 1992 opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia described the portrait of Taney, made two years after Taney's infamous decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, as showing Taney "in black, sitting in a shadowed red armchair, left hand resting upon a pad of paper in his lap, right hand hanging limply, almost lifelessly, beside the inner arm of the chair. He sits facing the viewer and staring straight out. There seems to be on his face, and in his deep-set eyes, an expression of profound sadness and disillusionment."

Related Topics:
Roger Brooke Taney - Harvard Law School - Antonin Scalia - Dred Scott v. Sanford

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In 1860 Leutze 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.

Related Topics:
1860 - U.S. Congress - Capitol - Washington, DC - Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way

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

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

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