Every time Andy Longacre sits down at the dining room table, it's like a family reunion.

Longacre, of Skaneateles, has several portraits of his ancestors hanging on the walls, three of which are oil paintings done by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, the 19th-century German-American artist best known for the famed “Washington Crossing the Delaware.#”

The story of their history #- and how they ended up displayed in his and wife, Gunny's Leitch Avenue home #- is one that Longacre never tires of telling.

Nor is he looking to keep the portraits all to himself.

“I'm happy to share them #- we get them most of the time,” Longacre said, referring to how two of the three pieces have in the past been loaned out for art exhibits.

It all dates back to the late 1830s, when James Barton Longacre, Longacre's great-great grandfather and later the chief engraver of the U.S. Mint (he designed the Indian Head penny), was publishing a project called the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans with partner James Herring. The series profiled famous citizens and also included pictures, many of which were James#' real-life engravings and sketches (Daniel Webster and Andrew Jackson were just a few of his subjects).

Leutze was brought on board to help with these profiles in 1836, but the series soon went bankrupt, leaving a 20-something artist without a job.

This is where the Longacres believe James took kindly to the struggling artist and “fed him for a while,#” as Ginny puts it, commissioning him to paint portraits of the Longacre family: James, his wife Eliza Stiles and young daughter Eliza Huldah.

All three, Longacre said, are examples of Leutze's early portraiture.

“He hasn't yet quite learned yet how to glue the parts of the body together,#” Longacre said, noting the uneven shoulders on Eliza Huldah.

For decades afterward, the portraits of the three family members were separated, hanging in different descendants#' homes.

Eliza Stiles was the first to arrive in Skaneateles. Following the death of a second cousin who had no descendants, Longacre didn't hesitate when the portrait of the graceful woman was offered to him.

“I love the lace scarf that she's wearing, and I think, ‘How did he ever paint that?'” Ginny questioned, staring at the portrait of her husband's great-great grandmother.

Six years later, James joined Eliza Stiles when Longacre inherited the portrait from his father. Longacre had grown up with the painting in his home and had always thought highly of James, “the shining light in our family.”

And the importance of James and Eliza Stiles being reunited after all these years isn't lost on Longacre.

“I think it's really neat that these two were brought together,#” Longacre said of the portraits of his great-great grandparents, who were separated seemingly forever when Eliza Stiles died in childbirth. “I don't know why, but it's emotional at this point.#”

The two family portraits were restored by a conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who confirmed that the paintings were both Leutzes, Longacre said.

Then, in 2004, another Leutze entered the Longacres#' lives, with little Eliza Huldah being given to them by a descendant who was moving.

The young girl's portrait was restored at West Lake Conservators in Mottville.

Now the three stare across the room at each other, frozen in time. Longacre can't help but smile as he looks at the proud man holding his National Portrait Gallery tomes, the delicate woman with a pencil in hand, the little angel with a cherub-like face.

Local ties

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze also had ties to another local family, that of William Henry Seward, a former New York state governor, state and U.S. senator, and secretary of state to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. The Seward House in Auburn, which owns three Leutze paintings, is offering a lecture on Leutze at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 18. The lectures will be given by Skaneateles resident Joan Marcoccia.

Other Leutze lectures will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept, 19, 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13 (featuring a guest lecturer from the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov., 14.

The Seward House is located at 33 South St., Auburn. For more information, call 252-1283