By Roselle Chen

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The iconic “Washington Crossing the Delaware”, painting that hung at the White House between the 1970s and 2014 is up for sale next month. It is expected to sell for around $20 million.

Emanuel Leutze created three oil paintings of Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 portrait of the American president who would lead troops in a pivotal moment during the American revolution. There are only two remaining.

Paige Kestenman of Christie’s New York, American Art specialist said the original was destroyed by an air attack in World War Two on Germany.

Kestenman stated that the second work is the iconic work at the heart of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing. The third work is right here.

New York’s Met version measures 11.4 ft by 21.25 feet (3.78m x 6.48m). This painting, which was put up for sale May 12, is smaller at 3 ft (9.9 m) by 6. ft (1.83m). It was a long-standing fixture in the White House’s West Wing reception hall.

Kestenman explained that Washington is seen leading his soldiers along the Delaware River in order to shock the infantry hidden on the opposite side of the river on Christmas Eve, 1776.

Kestenman stated that Leutze, a German-born American immigrant was also staunchly abolitionist. He deliberately included various figures in Washington crossing the Delaware to show the diversity of American society.

She pointed out two Black soldiers, one wearing a Scottish bonnet and another with moccasins, buckskin, and a black soldier.