On Christmas night 1776, George Washington led his army across the icy Delaware River for a surprise attack on Trenton. Emanuel Leutze, a German-American, painted the scene in Düsseldorf in 1851.

It is full of mistakes: the flag shown didn’t exist yet, the boats were bigger, and standing up in a small boat on an icy river would be reckless. None of it hurt its fame. It is more than six meters wide.