Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (24 de mayo de 1816 - 18 de julio de 1868) fue un pintor de historia americano-alemán más conocido por su pintura Washington cruzando el Delaware. Es asociado con la escuela pictórica de Düsseldorf.

Leutze nació en Schwäbisch Gmünd, Wurtemberg, Alemania, y fue llevado a Estados Unidos cuando era un niño.​Sus padres se establecieron primero en Fredericksburg, Virginia, y luego en Filadelfia. Su educación temprana fue buena, pero no fue especialmente dirigida al arte. El primer desarrollo de su talento artístico ocurrió cuando atendía en su cama a su padre enfermo, cuando intentó dibujar para ocupar las largas horas de espera.​ Su padre murió en 1831.​ A los 14, pintaba retratos a 5 dólares cada uno. Con este trabajo se mantuvo después de la muerte de su padre.​ En 1834, recibió su primera instrucción de arte en clases con John Rubens Smith,​ un retratista en Filadelfia. Pronto se volvió hábil y organizó un plan para publicar, en Washington, retratos de hombres de estado americanos eminentes; sin embargo, se encontró con poco apoyo.​

In 1840, one of his paintings attracted attention and procured him several orders, which enabled him to go to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied with Lessing. In 1842 he went to Munich, studying the works of Cornelius and Kaulbach, and, while there, finished his Columbus before the Queen. The following year he visited Venice and Rome, making studies from Titian and Michelangelo. His first work, Columbus before the Council of Salamanca was purchased by the Düsseldorf Art Union. A companion picture, Columbus in Chains, procured him the gold medal of the Brussels Art Exhibition, and was subsequently purchased by the Art Union in New York; it was the basis of the 1893 $2 Columbian stamp. In 1845, after a tour in Italy, he returned to Düsseldorf, marrying Juliane Lottner​ and making his home there for 14 years.​

During his years in Düsseldorf, he was a resource for visiting Americans: he found them places to live and work, provided introductions, and emotional and even financial support.​ For many years, he was the president of the Düsseldorf Artists' Association; in 1848, he was an early promoter of the “Malkasten” art association; and in 1857, he led the call for a gathering of artists which led to the founding of the Allgemeine deutsche Kunstgenossenschaft.​

A strong supporter of Europe's Revolutions of 1848, Leutze decided to paint an image that would encourage Europe's liberal reformers with the example of the American Revolution. Using American tourists and art students as models and assistants, Leutze finished Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1850. It is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1854, Leutze finished his depiction of the Battle of Monmouth, "Washington rallying the troops at Monmouth," commissioned by an important Leutze patron, banker David Leavitt of New York City and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.​

In 1859, Leutze returned to the United States and opened a studio in New York City.​ He divided his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.​ In 1859, he 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. Sandford, 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."

Esta es una parte del artículo de Wikipedia utilizado bajo la licencia CC-BY-SA. El texto completo del artículo está aquí →

Más ...