Hochkirch by the German realist painter Adolf von Menzel. (1815-1905). Menzel shows here the inferno of a battle. Men are struggling to move forward, they are afraid. There is no dumb heroism.
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Prussian Battle
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Surrender of Acre
The Surrender of Acre by the French painter Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853). The most important victory of the Third Crusade. Here the Muslim garrison surrenders to the French king Philip Augustus and the English king Richard I. Another piece for the Crusader Gallery in the National Museum in Versailles.
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Treacherous Mermaids
Mermaids' Rock (c.1894) by the British painter Edward Matthew Hale (1852-1924). Interesting is that sirens and mermaids where normally painted in a classical Greek context. Hale preferred here some Vikings or Celts meaning his own British ancestors.
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After the Battle
After the battle of Fýrisvellir (1888) by the Swedish painter Mårten Eskil Winge (1825-1896). In the battle of Fýrisvellir the Swedes repelled an army of Nordic invaders. Though it's a great nation victory it's interesting that Winge didn't paint the great heroic deeds but the contemplative moments after the battle
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Bloody Carnage
The Massacre of the Abencerrages (1874) by the French painter Georges Jules Victor Clairin (1843-1919). The cruel subject is taken from Chateaubriand's Aventures du dernier Abencérage (1826)i.e. Boabdil, the last king of Granada. Boabdil lured the rival tribe of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra, where all were slaughtered. The legend says that the fountain flowed not with water but with blood.
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Old Comrades
Another Waterloo battle scene by the French battle painter Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellange (1800-1866). An old greandier tries to comfort a dying comrade.
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Art Nouveau Knights
Another powerful and elegant illustrations by the Austrian Art Nouveau painter Carl Otto Czeschka (1878-1960) done for an edition of "Die Nibelungen" (1909).
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Epic Battle
The battle of Salamis by the German romantic painter Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Theodor Kaulbach (1822-1839). Even the gods are taking arms in this legendary battle between Orient and Okzident.
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A Proud Nude
Isabelle and Orleans (1938) by the great Australian artist Norman Lindsay (1879-1969). The French Princess Isabella of Valois (1387-1410) was the daughter of King Charles VI. Her childhood marriage at the age of eight to Richard II of England sought peace between the two counties. Following Richard's grisly murder, Henry IV tried to marry her off to his son, the future Henry V of Agincourt fame. Isabella refused and eventually returned to France, where she married Charles, Duke of Orléans at Compiègne in 1406. The marriage, however, was brief, Isabella dying in her early twenties giving birth to their daughter, Joan.
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Patriotic Victory
Andreas Hofer after his victory of Bergisel (1900) by the Austrian artist Franz von Defregger (1835-1921). Defregger depicts here members the Tirolean militias in their uprising against the Napoleonic oppression. It's the people in arms, very popular at the eve of World War I.
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Guarapes
The Second Battle of Guararapes by the Brazilian painter Victor Meirelles (1832-1903). The Second Battle of Guararapes was the second and decisive battle in the war between the Dutch West India Company and Portuguese forces in 1649, ending the Dutch occupation of the Portuguese colony of Brazil.
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A Striking Ceremony
An Egyptian Feast by the British painter Edwin Longsden Long (1829-1891). A colorful, exotic scenery, using the latest archaeological and historical insights.
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Dramatic Action
The death of Simon de Montort by the French artist Alphonse de Neuville (1835-1885). This book illustration was done for Guizot's History of France. Simon de Montort was the cruel leader in the Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) an was killed during the siege of Toulouse on 25 June 1218 smashed by a stone from a mangonel, operated by the women of Toulouse.
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Historical Pin-Up
Cleopatra as a kind of pin-up by the American artist Victor Tchetchet (1891-1974). Tchetchet was a famous pin-up calendar and cover artist working for magazines like American Weekly, Liberty, Master Detective, Photoplay.
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A Broken Heart
Napoleons Farewell To Josephine by the British painter Laslett John Pott (1837-1898). Normally Pott was more specialized in military scenes but here he depicted the great hero on a romantic battlefield.
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Patriotic Students
The students march out to defend Copenhagen during the 1658 siege (1889) by the Danish painter Vilhelm Jacob Rosenstand (1838-1915).
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Victorious Return
Les Corsaires 1806 by the French military painter Maurice Orange (1867-1916). A French privateer has captured a British ship. Now the men are returning in triumph with their prisoners, the conquered ship, the flag and rich spoils.
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A Warrior Saint
Joan of Arc in battle by the German Romantic painter Hermann Anton Stilke (1803-1860). This is the central part of a his Joan of Arc Triptych.
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Obsequies For A Cat
The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat (1886) by the British painter John Reinhard Weguelin (1849-1927). A priestess kneels before an altar upon which is placed the mummy of a cat. She is burning incense, and has presented offerings of flowers and food to the cat's spirit, together with a plate of milk. On the wall behind the priestess is an Egyptian fresco, and a statue of the goddess Sekhmet or Bastet enthroned guards the entrance to the temple.
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Those Who Are About To Die
"Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant" (1859) by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). Gérôme loved the spectacular death in the arena and painted it normally with the perspective from inside out.
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