Emanuel Leutze (1816 – 1868) Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851 Oil on canvas, 149 x 255 in. (378.5 x 647.7 cm.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897 In Emanuel Leutze’s painting, the commander of the Continental Army against Great Britain stands boldly near the prow of a crowded boat and navigates the treacherous Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776. The Declaration of Independence had been signed earlier that year in the summer heat of Philadelphia, and through the sobering autumn months General Washington led an army of dwindling numbers, with defeats mounting and morale sinking. TEACHING ACTIVITIES Encourage students to let their eyes travel around and into the background of this painting. Describe and analyze ...
Childe Hassam (1859 – 1935) Allies Day, May 1917, 1917 Oil on canvas, 36 ½ x 30 ¼ in. (92.7 x 76.8 cm.) Gift of Ethelyn McKinney in memory of her brother, Glenn Ford McKinney One month after the United States officially entered the First World War, the city of New York festooned Fifth Avenue with flags. As a welcoming gesture to the British and French war commissioners, the Stars and Stripes hung alongside the Union Jack and the French Tricolor to create a patriotic pattern of red, white, and blue. Childe Hassam, an American of British descent who had studied and worked in Paris, took personal pride in the military alliance. TEACHING ACTIVITIES Encourage students to view this ...
Walker Evans (1903 – 1975) Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 1929, printed c. 1970 Gelatin silver print, 6 ¾ x 4 13/16 in. (17.2 x 12.2 cm.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of Arnold H. Crane, 1972 When the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic in 1883, it was the largest suspension bridge in the world, and its towers were the tallest structures in the Western Hemisphere. As the years went by, that triumph of engineering and architecture began to lose its power to inspire awe. By 1929, when Walker Evans began to photograph it, the bridge had settled into the unexciting link between the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan; it was hardly even noticed by the harried commuters ...