Bitter Grief

Mourning her Brave (1883) by the American painter George de Forest Brush (1855-1941). A great symbolic painting about grief, the tragic end of a people.

Above all in it's simplicity and it's nearly abstract, two dimensional execution it's a really modern painting. It doesn't pretend to be realistic, it's a powerful impression of a tragedy.

Patriotic Death

The Swiss painter Konrad Grob (1828-1904) depicted here the heroic deed and death of his legendary compatriot Arnold Winkelried in the Battle of Sempach in 1386.

According to legend, the Swiss could not break the close ranks of the Habsburg knights. Winkelried threw himself into the pikes with the cry "a breach for liberty" facilitating the victory of the Swiss. It’s typical 19th century painting but nevertheless it’s well done, confronting very dynamically the poor armed and clad but energetic Swiss farmers with the Austrian wall of steel.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes (1914) by the Spanish painter Antonio Muñoz Degrain (1840-1924). When he painted this Muñoz Degrain had long moved to impressionism and done several journeys to Turkey, Syria and Egypt. So the painting is less a historical but much more a reflection about light and life in the Near East.

Art Nouveau Knight

A knight errant from the beginning of the 20th century by the Austrian painter Erwin Stolz (1896-1987).

Maybe he represents Sir Galahad searching the Holy Grail. In the best Art Nouveau manner the painting reduces perspective and colors but is instead full of symbols like the divine light from above or the wild geese an old icon for wandering adventurers,

Classical Barbarians

The Death of Viriathus the chief of the Lusitanians (1807) by the Spanish painter José de Madrazo y Agudo (1781-1859).

Viriathus was the most important leader of the Lusitanian when they resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Hispania, today Portugal. Viriathus fought with great success against the Romans until he was betrayed to the Romans and killed in138 BC.

So it’s not astonishing that Viriathus was discovered in the 19th century by the patriots of Portugal and Spain as a kind of early national hero fighting foreign oppressors like Napoleon in their present days. But surprising is at least the fact that Madrazo depicted the barbarian chieftain and his followers as Greek or Romans. The whole painting resembles a lot the “Oath of the Horatii” (1784) by David. The explanation is that Madrazo was a pupil of David in Paris. And as the Lusitanians are looking like their Roman enemies, the Spanish patriot painted like his French adversaries.

On The Way To Destiny

Wallensteins on his way to Eger (c.1861/62) by the German painter Karl Theodor von Piloty (1826–1886).

Piloty was the leading German history painter of the late 19th century. Here he depicted the most important General of the Catholic League during the Thirty Years War. Wallenstein on the peak of his power was on his way to Eger. There he planned to start peace negotiations on his own but was murdered by some of his officers.

It was this vicinity of power and failure, the fall from great height what Piloty fascinated. There is a mighty army moving, but in front are already waiting the gravediggers – looks like a quotation of Hamlet.

Egyptian Artist

Egypt (1902) by the American artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966).

Maxfield Parrish was a famous Illustrator of the Art Deco era, who worked regularly for great magazines like Colliers, Scribners or Century. He experimented a lot with new techniques and achieved above all dazzlingly luminous colors. Like many modern artists of that time Parrish renounces to paint a historical illusion. To him history is only a kind of decoration, a fantasy, so he doesn’t pretend to be realistic. His Egyptian artist is much more color, form and elegance.

The Doors of Tamerlane

The Doors of Tamerlane (1872-73) by the Russian painter Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904).

Vereshchagin served in the Russian army in their campaigns in Central Asia and participated in military actions against the Emir of Bukhara and fought with bravery in the defense of Samarkand. During these campaigns he became fascinated by the live and culture of the people there. He painted later many Central Asian warriors in their archaic look. Or he painted like here historical warriors guarding the palace of Tamerlane in Samarkand resembling their actual heirs.

Classical Ideal

View of the Acropolis in Athens (1846) by the German artist Leo von Klenze (1784 - 1864). Klenze was above all a well known architect who studied classical architecture in Greece and Italy and designed public buildings in this tradition in Munich. So he wasn’t very interested in narrating old stories but more to show how his ideal may have looked like.

Patriotic Icon

The Departure of Jeanne d'Arc

Entrance of Jeanne d'Arc at Orleans

These two romantic paintings of the national icon Jeanne d’Arc are by the French painter Jean-Jacques Scherrer (1855-1916). Scherrer did them in the 1870s after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, when he left his beloved Alsace which was lost in the war.
So Jeanne is here a kind of patriotic consolation and hope for a victory in the future.

The Rider on the Pale Horse

Napoleon’s Vision (1910) by the Polish painter Wojciech Kossak (1857-1942). Wojciech Kossak was the son of the famous history painter Juliusz Kossak and became well known for his battle paintings. Despite he preferred normally a more realistic depiction he shows here a symbolic interpretation of Napoleon. Napoleon appears as one of the four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the rider on the pale horse whose name was Death!

A Bitter Death

The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson (1881) by the British painter John Collier (1850-1934).

The great English sea explorer and navigator Henry Hudson traveled on his last expedition in 1611 far north in search of the Northwest Passage when his crew mutinied and set him adrift in a small boat with six of his men and his young son. They were never seen or heard of again.
Collier dramatizes the moment when Hudson already knows about his certain death but has also to face this of his confident son.