Washington Crossing the Delaware: American Revolutionary Soldier

Alex Katz, Washington Crossing the Delaware: American Revolutionary Soldier, 1961, oil on plywood, 22 ³⁄₈ x 19 x 6 ³⁄₈ in. (56.8 x 48.2 x 16.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Aaron Kozak, 1980.139.2

Artwork Details

Title: Washington Crossing the Delaware: American Revolutionary Soldier
Artist: Alex Katz
Date: 1961
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 22 ³⁄₈ x 19 x 6 ³⁄₈ in. (56.8 x 48.2 x 16.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Aaron Kozak
Mediums: plywood
oil
Mediums Description: oil on plywood
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Figure male — full length
Occupation — military — soldier
Dress — uniform — military uniform
History — United States — Revolution
Waterscape — river — Delaware River
Object Number: 1980.139.2
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1980.139.2

Artwork Description

In 1959, Alex Katz began painting figures on canvas, cutting them out and then pasting them onto wooden boards. Two years later the playwright Kenneth Koch saw an exhibition of these and asked Katz to produce the props and sets for his one-act play George Washington Crossing the Delaware. In Koch's satire, Washington’s famous crossing was motivated by his childhood when, after cutting down the cherry tree, the young Washington swam across a river to avoid his father's wrath. The play became an underground hit largely because of Katz's irreverent image of Washington. At the time, art critic Irving Sandler described the cutouts as "the perfect setting for the delivery of such lines as the following from the father of our country: 'I am tired and I need sleep. Good night America.'"