(German/America,1816-1868)

Stephen Austin Crossing into Texas--Two O'clock and No Water, signed and dated lower right "E. Leutze 1857", oil on canvas, 24 x 41-1/2 in.; fine period carved gilt wood frame, 35-1/2 x 51-1/2 in.

Provenance: The artist, 1857;  A Valuable Collection of Oil Paintings Comprising the most Recent and Important Works of E. Leutze, Esq.,
Derby Fine Arts Institute, D.W. Ives &; Co., Edward Sintzenich, Auctioneer. May 7, 1863, lot 24; Unidentified collection, probably New York; Marshall O. Roberts, New York (probably) by 1864; Hudson House Antiques, Funkstown, Maryland circa 2000; Charles Samuel Kurtz, Maryland; By descent in the Kurtz family; Private Collection, Washington, D.C.
 

Note: This important work by Emanuel Leutze is thought to be the earliest known painting relating to the founding of the State of Texas. It depicts a Mexican soldier on horseback leading a train of Anglo-American emigrants, and represents the colonization of Mexican territory by Anglo-Americans during the 1820s. It is also highly likely that the subject on horseback at the far left of the canvas represents Texas empresario Stephen Austin, as he accompanies the emigrants into Tejas. This painting relates to a decorative plan Leutze proposed for  the U.S. Capitol building of which Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, hanging in the grand staircase on the House of Representative side of the Capitol is the lone realized version.

 Emanuel Leutze is widely considered the preeminent painter of American History.  His dramatic  rendering of Washington Crossing the Delaware, is an iconic image known the world over,  and a version of it recently sold for over $45,000,000 at public auction. 

Literature: Artist’s Fund Society of New York, Catalogue of The Fifth Annual Sale of Paintings, at the Galleries, No. 625 Broadway, New York.  1864-1865; 
Emmanuel Leutze, 1816-1868, Freedom is the only King, Barbara S. Groseclose, Smithsonian Institution Press
Washington, D.C. 1976.

For details and additional research into the subject and history of this painting, see the accompanying information. 

painting conserved by Stella Art Conservation, West Palm Beach, Florida, 2019.  Treatment report available online.