(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Is this the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, or is it this?

Well, actually they both are.

12 feet tall and 20 feet wide, this larger than life painting sits in a gilded frame at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This is German immigrant Emanuel Leutze's most famous historical work.

It's a dramatic depiction of Christmas morning, 1776, when the Continental Army crossed the icy Delaware for a successful sneak attack.

But it was painted 75 years after the battle.

The 2011 painting by Mort Kunstler is considered more accurate.

Washington's clothing, the missing US flag, which didn't exist yet, the flat bottom boat, the time of day, all painstakingly researched.

Nevertheless, Kunstler said it himself, "I'm not knocking the original.

It's got great impact and Leutze did a heck of a job."

And still, 175 years later, Leutze's work continues to wow us.