Oedipus

Oedipus (1867) by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904).

This histrionic painting was very popular and often reprinted. It shows Napoleon in front of the Sphinx. The hero of mankind facing destiny, trying to answer it’s questions.

This melodramatic face-to-face is furthermore intensified because Gérôme didn’t paint the pyramids which are behind the Sphinx. So it’s only man and destiny in the desert.

Great Melodrama

In 1547 the Spanish Duke of Gandia conveyed the corpse of the empress Isabel of Portugal to her burial-place in Granada. It is said that, when he saw the effect of death on the once so beautiful and charming empress, he decided to become a monk.

The Conversion of the Duke of Gandia (1884) is by the famous Spanish history painter José Moreno Carbonero (1858-1942). It’s a perfect constructed melodrama with the desolate duke in the center but concentrating with the light from the left on the casket with the dead body.

Storming Saragossa

Storming Saragossa (1845) by the Polish military painter January Suchodolski (1797-1875).

It’s interesting to compare this painting with with "The defense of Czestochowa" also by Suchodolski. Both are showing the heroic fighting on the walls with a similar dramatic illumination. A difference is that the walls of Saragossa are much more impressive. Probably this can be explained with the fact, that in Saragossa the Poles were storming – while they defended Czestochowa.

(Too) Late History Painting

The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard by the American painter Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930).

How his name indicates Ferris was a great devotee of the French academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). And that illustrates the problem. Ferris worked a whole generation later when history painting in the way of Gérôme and his contemporaries has long passed by.

Despite Ferris was a good artist he is missing the cool and clear composition of the neoclassic trained Gérôme. Ferris piled up a lot of nice historical details and came out as an illustrator but without reaching the high level of his great compatriots Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, or Frank Schoonover who discovered new methods for the interpretation of history.

Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible and his Son (1885) Russian realistic painter Ilya Repin (1844-1930).

Repin depicts here how the tsar Ivan the Terrible in an attack of rage killed his only son causing the end of the old Rurik Dynasty. Ivan was already old then (1581) his foreign policy and a lot of his interior reforms had failed and he saw himself surrounded by traitors.

Repin didn’t focus here on the mighty ruler, he shows a mad man who felt victim to his uncontrolled tempers, a mad man holding his broken dreams.

Especially for patriotic Russians the death of Ivan’s son was a disaster because it marked the beginning of the Time of Troubles a long period when Russia was invaded by foreign armies and torn by civil wars.

A French Hero

Du Guesclin at the battle of Cocherel by the French painter Charles-Philippe Larivière (1798-1876).

That’s a scene from the Hundred Years War. The leader of the French forces Bertrand du Guesclin defeated at Cocherel in 1365 an Navarrese and Aquitaine army.

It’s a typical history painting of the late 19th century depicting a great event of national history. The weapons and clothes are historically very correct. Nevertheless the whole painting is pure but well done construction. There are the two adversaries staring at each other, the French triumphantly on his horse. The flying French banners and the damaged Navarrese and English ones.

Norse Mythology

The construction of a national identity is normally connected with a search for the own cultural roots. Especially in northern Europe and in Germany this led to a fascination for pre Christian Nordic mythology – Wagner is only the best known example.

In Norway Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892) painted historical patriotic scenes and not least the recently rediscovered Nordic gods. Most famous he became for his big painting Åsgårdsreien (1872) which pretended to show Odin’s Wild Hunt.

Because of the barbarian subject and the obscure scenery it’s still very popular serving as a kind of pre-fantasy-painting. For example it was used as cover for the album Blood Fire Death by the Swedish band Bathory.

But at a little closer look there remains not much of that pretended reanimation of Nordic traditions. The whole composition and most of the figures derive from baroque ceiling paintings. There is nothing barbarian in it, there is nothing “Nordic”, there are the same Olympic gods hunting some naked puttis or nymphs.

The thing is even more obvious regarding Arbo’s painting Valkyrien (1865).

The cruel Nordic war spirit looks neither warlike nor awesome, it’s at last a rosy baroque angel or allegory. It’s ridiculous.

The Doors of Hougomont

Hougomont 1815 (1903) by the Scottish painter Robert Gibb (1845-1932).

Gibb a popular military painter depicted here the hard fighting at the doors of the farm Hougomont in the battle of Waterloo. It’s one of the typical paintings which decorated British Officers' Clubs and country houses.

Classic Saladin

Saladin conquering Jerusalem (c.1830-50) by the French painter Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (1780-1850).

Alexandre Fragonard was the son of the Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard and a student of Jacques-Louis David. Here he depicted how the famous Muslim leader Saladin conquered Jerusalem. To show a Muslim as a hero was not so unusually for an artist in the time of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

But really remarkable are the classical costumes. Fragonard depicted the Arabs as Greek warriors, the only concession is the strange turban of Saladin.

Hunnic Raiders

Hunnic raiders pillaging a Roman villa by the French painter Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938).

Despite being a good painter Rochegrosse earned probably the most money with the prints of his paintings which were very popular as illustrations in books and journals. Here he depicted with a lot of interesting details how a Hunnic raiding party pillaged a Roman villa probably in France. The strange scythe-like lances or the fur hats are pure invention but still nice.

Defeated Napoleon

Napoleon after Waterloo by the English battle painter Robert Alexander Hillingford (1825-1904).

Napoleon returns defeated from the battlefield. He knows that he has lost all: the battle, the crown, his supporters and his freedom.

Two Adventurers

Charles XII of Sweden and Ivan Mazepa after The Battle of Poltava (1880) by the Swedish painter Gustav Cederström (1845-1933).

Charles XII had waged war against many countries and some people even compared him with Alexander the Great. Finally he let his troops deep into the south of Russia, where he lost the decisive battle of Poltava which was the beginning of the end. Cederström shows here the defeated and wounded king with his ally Mazepa the Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Mazepa is pointing to the south, to Turkey where new allies could be found.
Sweden was lost but the adventure went on.