Painting History: Facing Death

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Facing Death

The Last moments of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico by the French painter Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921).

Laurens shows here the farewell of Maximilian before his execution. Different from his friends he’s the only one showing real strength, he’s going to die like an Emperor.

1 comment:

Sheilla LizJanuary 18, 2011 at 4:48 AM
Hi! Your blog is very nice!I love History and painting! Cheers.
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History Painting and Realism

History painting dates back to the Renaissance and was long considered to be the "grand genre". Nevertheless it has its peak in the 19th century forged by Neoclassicism and Romanticism. There it became the artistic contribution in the process of the construction of National Identities of the European and American nations.

At the same time history painting under the influence of historism pretended to be "realistic", to show history how it has been. Above all it was this pretension that led to the great failure of History painting AND Realism at the end of the century.

When artists and their public realized that telling history always will be subjective and a painting will always be an illusion Realism and history painting lost their ground to modern painting.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Facing Death

1 comment:

History Painting and Realism

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