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" &amp;quot;It has been a vast and ambitious project, a journey across a river, if you will.&amp;quot; So says Morrison H. Heckscher, the chairman of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, referring to a campaign that, not unlike those of General George Washington during the American Revolution, combined vision, courage, stamina, hardship, luck, sweat, coordination, and no small amount of patriotism: the completion of the museum&amp;#039;s new 30,000-square-foot American Wing, opening January 16, after 10 years in the making. With 25 airy galleries (18 of them are skylit), subtle Beaux Arts touches, and improved sight lines, the new installation, designed by Kevin Roche, has given American art the stately home it deserves in America&amp;#039;s top museum. The small army pictured here \u2014 curators, trustees, administrators \u2014 might not be as ragtag as Washington&amp;#039;s, but it is no less formidable. The focus of it all is Emanuel Leutze&amp;#039;s Washington Crossing the Delaware, the triumphal 1851 canvas that previously took up residence in a side gallery inside a thin gilt frame dating to the early 20th century. Thanks to a two-year restoration, you can now make out every fleck of snow on the shoulders and hat brims of Washington&amp;#039;s crew as they gamely plow through the ice on December 25, 1776, en route to a surprise attack on Hessian forces near Trenton, New Jersey \u2014 a Christmas present for King George III. The monumental new basswood frame, executed by master framer Eli Wilner, is nearly as epic as the painting itself: 1,400 pounds, 12 feet high by 21 across (including a 12-foot crest with preening eagle), and requiring 12,000 sheets of gold leaf. &amp;quot;It shows how we have burnished the treatment of American art,&amp;quot; Heckscher says, taking the frame as a handy metaphor and savoring the tactical element of surprise. &amp;quot;Everybody will be absolutely flabbergasted.&amp;quot;  The dream team behind the Metropolitan Museum&amp;#039;s new American Wing gathers before Washington Crossing the Delaware, arguably the best-known painting in America&amp;#039;s best-known museum. From left: Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, curator; Emily K. Rafferty, president of the Metropolitan Museum; H. Barbara Weinberg, curator; Morrison H. Heckscher, chairman of the American Wing; Carrie Rebora Barratt, associate director for collections and administration; Lulu C. Wang, trustee; Daniel Brodsky, chairman of the board of trustees; Thayer Tolles, curator; Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, curator; Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the museum; Peter M. Kenny, curator and administrator; Beth Carver Wees, curator; and Amelia Peck, curator and manager of the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/reviews/a835/met-american-wing-review/>