German-born painter who lived in America from 1825 to 1841 and again from 1859 and is usually considered a member of the American School. He is remembered mainly for his Washington Crossing the Delaware (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1851), painted in Düsseldorf, where he spent most of his career, and for another work that similarly appeals more for its patriotic sentiments than for any aesthetic merit - his large mural Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861-62) in the Capitol at Washington. His portraits and rare landscapes are more distinguished, but remain virtually unknown. //