NEW YORK – The most recognized work at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” will be auctioned by the auction house Christie’s on May 12. Christies said the private owner wished not to be identified, but in Minnesota art circles it was widely known to be owned by collectors Bob Kierlin and Mary Burrichter of Winona. Christie’s estimated the value at $15 million to $20 million. The Kierlins loaned the work to the marine art museum, which they had co-founded. The painting, done in 1851, has always been in private hands.
Unique portrayal. In 1851, decades after Washington died, German-American history painter Imanuel Luetz depicted Washington as a decisive leader on the eve of pivotal Battle of Trenton. Earlier artists had placed Washington in regal settings, facing askance or looking down on the battlefield. Leutze, who was an abolitionist, chose also to emphasize different cultures. With Washington he placed soldiers in Native American and Scottish garb. Also on board is a black man believed to be either Prince Whipple, an enslaved man who enlisted in the Contintental army, or William Billy Lee, Washington’s enslaved valet and aide. Luetze saw America as an immigrant country.
Profile of a painting
Luetze created the oil-on-canvas painting in 1849. The piece was damaged in a fire in Luetze’s studio in 1850, but restored and displayed in a Berman, Germany museum, until the museum was destroyed in a World War II air raid. Luetze also created two others. One is a 21-foot canvas that takes up an entire wall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The other, 3½ by 5½ feet, was smaller to make engraving for additional copies easier. The smallest version was displayed from 2015 to 2022 at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.
Imanuel Gottlieb Luetze (1816-1868). Inspired by but never met Washington.
Ownership trail
Recent history of smallest version:
> 1973. Sold for $260,000, the most ever paid for an American painting.
>1979. Sold for $370,000 and displayed on loan to White House.
> 2015. Sold, price never teported, to the Kierlins and on loan to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.
> 2022. Consigned to Christie’s in New York for auction, the value pegged at $15 million to $20 million.