Washington Crossing the Delaware c. 1963

Curator: Looking at Justin McCarthy’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” now held at Harvard Art Museums, what strikes you first? Editor: The texture, definitely. The paint is so thickly applied, almost sculptural. I wonder about McCarthy's relationship to materiality. Curator: Indeed. McCarthy worked outside academic art circles, and his engagement with popular historical imagery like this reveals much about how national narratives were circulated and understood. Editor: Right, and the very act of painting such a well-known scene, the labor involved, makes us consider the social impact of this repeated imagery. Curator: I agree. The iconic status of Washington crossing the Delaware is really re-framed here; its visibility and historical placement is all the more prominent. Editor: It makes you wonder who is more important, the myth or the man. Curator: Precisely. And McCarthy's process really drives that home.