Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816 – July 18, 1868) was a German-born American history painter, best known for his 1851 painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.

The first development of his artistic talent occurred while he was attending the sickbed of his father, when he attempted drawing to occupy the long hours of waiting.

He soon became skilled, and promoted a plan for publishing, in Washington, portraits of eminent American statesmen; however, he was met with slight encouragement.

[2] During his years in Düsseldorf, he was a resource for visiting Americans: he found them places to live and work, provided introductions, and gave them emotional and even financial support.

Using American tourists and art students as models and assistants, Leutze finished a first version of Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1850.

The second painting, a replica of the first, only larger, was ordered in 1850 by the Parisian art trader Adolphe Goupil for his New York branch and placed on exhibition on Broadway in October 1851.

[2] He divided his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.[11] In 1859, he painted a portrait of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, which hangs in the Harvard Law School.

[5]Leutze's portraits are known for the artistic quality of their patriotic romanticism, and his epic Washington Crossing the Delaware ranks in the utmost echelon of American national iconography.