Sunday, January 06, 2019

Art History or Art as History?

Washington Crossing the Delaware is a very famous painting. Its use in popular culture probably even led to a contest to pick the best George Washington impersonator to re-enact the crossing every year. Watch this video to find out more about the contest. 


After watching the video, lets look at the paining. What do you see? Can you find any historical inconsistencies? You can find more information about the painting of Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Emanuel Leutze "Washington Crossing the Delaware "
The painting creates a lot of questions. Why was this painted? Is it historically accurate? Who is the artist Emanuel Leutze? Check out the article below to find out these answers.

Assignment 

In the comment section of this post answer the following questions:

  1. In "Being George" why do you think portraying George Washington is so important to the contestants?
  2. Why did Leutze paint "Washington Crossing the Delaware"? 
  3. Identify three historical inaccuracies in the painting. 
  4. Should art be historically accurate? Explain why or why not. 

Copy and paste the following frame for your comment:
  1. Portraying George Washington is important to the contestants because
  2. Leutze painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" because
  3. Three historical inaccuracies in the painting are
  4. Yes, art should be historically accurate because/No, art should not be historically accurate because 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Portraying George Washington is important to the contestants because they have many people to leave the problem to exchange from many economic from label from here.
Aleut painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" because having many lands to provide to change by anything from preforming as many.
Three historical inaccuracies in the painting are controlling from stealer or else to explain from anything to learning.
Yes, art should be historically accurate because/No, art should not be historically accurate because blocking their lives to write are movies from control with everything.

Decklynn said...

Decklynn Johnston: Seventh Hour
1.Portraying George Washington is important to the contestants because they saw George Washington as a hero.

2.Leutze painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" because he was hoping to encourage Europe's liberal reformers through the example of the American Revolution.

3.Three historical inaccuracies in the painting are Washington's stance, the size of the boat, and it would be hard to control the boat in the stormy weather.

4.No, art should not be historically accurate because art can still be important to history even if it isn't real history. For example, The Foot Soldier. The statue was inaccurate, but it was still important to history.

Anonymous said...

Portraying George Washington is important to the contestants because he was an honorable man and because he was one of the best leaders in America .
Leutze painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" because it shows Washington and his men crossing the Delaware River for the surprise attack against the German allies .
Three historical inaccuracies in the painting are the crew , how confident Washington looks and the waves and weather .
Yes, art should be historically accurate so that we know what really happened and not just small parts of it .
-Avoleen :(

Unknown said...

1. Portraying George Washington is important to the contestants because He was one of the best leaders in america.

2. Leutze painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" because to show George Washington crossing with his for the surprise attack on the German.

3. Three historical inaccuracies in the painting are, if Washington was on the edge he would have fell out, most people would have been standing to avoid icy water in the bottom of the boat,it was also night when they were crossing.

4. No, art should not be historically accurate because I think art should have it's own voice. Even though it could be wrong it could be from the artist perspective.

Analisa