Hus at Constance

Hus at Constance (1842) by the German romantic painter Carl Friedrich Lessing (1808-80). The German protestant shows here Hus as a kind of forefather of Luther defying the clergy who will burn him.

Mythical Villain

The Death of Ravana King of Lanka (1875) by the French painter Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon (1845-1924). Ravana is the villain in the Hindu epic Ramayana where he kidnaps Rama's wife. Cormon depicts him like an ancient warrior king mourned by his wifes.

Aeskulap

Aeskulap by the English painter Edward Poynter (1836-1919). Looking at the four patients I suspect Aeskulap was more an excuse to show some nudes.

Columbus Landing

Columbus Landing by the American painter John Vanderlyn (1775-1852). This painting was commissioned by the Congress in June 1836 for the Capitol Rotunda. Columbus was claimed as a forefather of the modern USA.

Loving Wife

A nice illustration to Shakespeares Antonius and Cleopatra by the American artist Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911). It was published in Harper's Monthly Magazine in September 1909.

Valley Forge

Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge (1907) by the American painter John Ward Dunsmore (1856-1945). The hard winter in Valley Forge one of the great myths of the American War of Independence.

Esther before the King

Esther Denouncing Haman by the British painter Ernest Normand (1859-1923). This is an old popular subject in religious art. But Normand painted it like a history or orientalistic painting with the great theatrical gestures which were popular.

Mythical Past

Dolmen in Snow by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). Though it's no history painting history, better the past, is present and the subject.

Historic Saint

Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death (1890) by the Russian realistic painter Ilya Repin (1844-1930). Despite it's kind of a religious painting Repic depicts it like a real history painting with the crresponding costumes and arms.

A Bloody Civil War

Henri de La Rochejacquelein at the Battle of Cholet in 1793 by the French painter Paul-Emile Boutigny (1853-1929). It's a scene from the War in the Vendée a popular Catholic and Royal uprising during the French Revolution.

Crusader Gallery

Richard I the Lionheart (1841) by the French Neoclassical painter Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853). Blondel was a student of Jean-Baptiste Regnault and did a whole series of famous crusaders such as Richard the Lionheart, Raymond IV de Toulouse, Jean de Joinville and others for the Crusader Gallery in the National Museum in Versailles.

Cannon Fodder

Sir John Falstaff Reviews His Ragged Regiment (1859) by the English artist Sir John Gilbert (1817–1897). Falstaff in front of his infamous "shadows", non-existent or disabled soldiers for whom the commanding officer receives pay. Recruiting is here a business with the only purpose to make money. In a very modern way Falstaff refers to his men: "Now, now: they’re good enough to die. Cannon fodder, cannon fodder—they’ll fill a mass grave as well as better men would."