“A gentleman, whose rich domain he chanced to approach in his wayward rovings, perceived his abilities, understood his unhappiness, and aroused him from inaction by a call upon his professional skill.  The artist obeyed, but he could not subdue the mood which possessed him.  No brilliant scene arose to his fancy, no humorous incident took form and color from his pencil, and the fair landscape around appeared to mock rather than cheer his destiny.  He could not bring himself into relation with subjects thus breathing of hope and gayety, but found inspiration only in the records of human sorrow.  As the royal mourner bade her companions sit upon the ground and ’tell sad stories of the death of kings,’ the pensive artist found something analogous to his own fate in the story of Hagar and Ishmael.  He painted them as having followed up a spent water-course, in hopes of finding wherewith to quench their thirst, and sinking under the disappointment.  He neither saw nor painted the angel of God who showed the fountain in the wilderness, and yet the angel was there, for now the sufferer acknowledges that early vicissitudes nerved him for high endeavor, rendered his vision piercing, his patience strong, and his confidence firm, and that this incidental effort to triumph over difficulties was the first of a series which inspired his subsequent career.”

In 1840 he produced a painting which he called “An Indian Contemplating the Setting Sun.”  It was exhibited in Philadelphia, and won general praise for the artist.  Better than this, it secured him the friendship of the late Edward L. Carey, of that city, who, recognizing his genius, determined to help him on in his labors.  Mr. Carey was successful in inducing his friends to give Leutze a number of commissions, and these enabled him to carry out his wish to visit Europe and complete his studies.  Instead of going to Italy, as was then the almost universal practice, he determined to study in Germany, and accordingly sailed for that country.  He went by way of Holland, and after a long and trying voyage reached Amsterdam in January, 1841.  Pausing here for awhile to familiarize himself with the master-pieces of the Dutch school, he repaired to Dusseldorf, where he became a pupil of the celebrated painter Lessing, under whom he made marked progress.  His reception by the artists of Dusseldorf was at once hearty and encouraging, and won for that school and its members his enthusiastic devotion.  He became Lessing’s pupil at the personal request of the master, and these two gifted men were soon bound to each other by the ties of an undying friendship.

Leutze devoted himself to historical subjects from the first, and soon after his arrival in Dusseldorf began his picture of “Columbus Before the Council of Salamanca.”  When it was finished, it was visited by Director V. Schadow, who praised it warmly, and requested the artist to offer it to the Art Union of Dusseldorf, which at once purchased it.  This high compliment to a beginner and a stranger proved an additional stimulus to Leutze, and he soon after produced a companion picture to his first, “Columbus in Chains,” which procured him the gold medal of the Brussels Art Exhibition, and was subsequently purchased by the Art Union of New York.