Idyllic Court Scene

Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester (1865) by the British painter William Frederick Yeames (1835-1918). Yeames preferred these idyllic scenes from the good old times.

Harem Guard

The Harem Guard by the Czech painter Rudolf Weisse (1869-1930). Despite it's not a decidedly history painting the whole oriental exotic setting suggests a far away place even in history.

Viking Queen

Queen Astrid by the American illustrator N.C. Wyeth (1882–1945). Wyeth did this Wagnerian illustration for the book The World Of Music - Song Programs for Youth (1938).

Tragic Love

Semiramis dying on Ninu’s grave by the Italian painter Augusto Valli (1867-1945). Valli depicts here the legendary Babylonian queen dying on her dead husbands tomb. But it seems also more an excuse to present a nude female body in an exotic setting.

Famous English Nude

Lady_Godiva by the French painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911). As legend tells Lady Godiva was a 11th century English princess married to Leofric, the Earl of Mercia and lord of Coventry. She begged her husband to relieve the townspeople of the oppressive taxes and tolls. He refused, unless she agree to ride through the town naked on horseback. Out of respect for their lady, it is said, the townspeople stayed indoors during her ride.

Ever-Present Peril

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Prehistoric Sweethearts

Prehistoric Woman (1895) by the French painter James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836- 1902). Tissot was famous as a painterr of elegantly dressed women shown in scenes of fashionable life. Here he painted two really fashionable Neolithic girls.

Romantic Death

Black Prince at the battle of Crecy by the British painter Julian Russell Story (1857-1919). After the battle the victorious English prince is contemplating the body of the dead King John of Bohemia. It should be mentioned that Edward Prince of Wales the eldest son of King Edward III of England was never called “Black” in his lifetime. It's an attribution of the 16th century. But anyway he looks nice so deadly black with the crows in the back.