Gestin
Medium
graphite and wash on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 23.18 × 24.45 cm (9 1/8 × 9 5/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Rear Admiral E.H.C. Leutze, son of the artist)
Accession Number
2015.19.283
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
**Gestin** is a captivating preparatory drawing by Emanuel Gottlieb Leze, created in 1839 when the artist was in his early twenties. Leutze, a German-American painter best known for his monumental Romantic history paintings like *Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), began his career honing his skills through detailed sketches. This intimate work on wove paper—measuring just 23.18 × 24.45 cm—offers a glimpse into his formative years in America, before he traveled to Düsseldorf for advanced training. Rendered in graphite and wash, *Gestin* exemplifies 19th-century draftsmanship techniques. ...
About the Artist
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
American, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1816–1868 Washington, D.C.