Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Ever-Present Peril

The Sword of Damocles (1812) by the neoclassical British painter Richard Westall (1765-1836).

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Romantic Knight

The Princess (1911) by Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952). Christy was an American artist and illustrator famous for the "Christy Girl", he published published in Scribner's and Harper's magazines and in Collier's Weekly.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Kind of Harem Painting

Brenn and His Share of the Spoils (1893) by the French painter Paul Jamin (1853-1903). Jamin depicts here the Gallic chieftain who sacked Rome probably in 387 BC in the popular manner of an Orientalistic harem painting. So it's in the end more the modern French going to a luxury brothel.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Heroic Waterloo

Waterlo, 18. Juni 1815 (1898) by the British painter William Holmes Sullivan (1870-1898). Another of these stupid heroic battle paintings. Here the English cavalry gas conquered a French flag.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Defeated Enemies

They Fell into Captivity (1885) by the Russian painter Bogdan Pavlovich Willewalde (1819-1903). Some French prisoners of Napoleon's terrific Grande Armée are conducted by a single Cossack. The painter contrasts the superb French uniforms with the simple outfit of the Cossack.