Edward Hicks

Washington Passing the Delaware

This work by Edward Hicks memorializes and celebrates a turning point in the Revolutionary War. In the winter of 1776, the Continental Army, under the leadership of General George Washington, outmaneuvered the British troops and Hessian mercenaries stationed in Trenton, New Jersey by crossing the Delaware River and launching a surprise attack. This daring plan was commemorated in many paintings in the aftermath of the American Revolution. Edward Hicks, who was best known for his Peaceable Kingdom pictures, was a resident and preacher in the area of Pennsylvania where the crossing took place, and he painted several versions of this canvas, modeling them after Thomas Sully’s The Passage of the Delaware (1819).