"The Greatest War and Battle Paintings of All Time" Topic

"Conflict has existed since the beginning of time, and artists have captured the atrocities and hardships of war every step of the way…"
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Amicalement
Armand

None of them would appear in my choices.

Yeah, only the Washington painting does it for me.

Washington crossing the Delaware, but no Charge of the Scott's Grey's?

Odd set of choices

Yuck.

Glup!….

Amicalement
Armand

Roy Lichtenstein? That's not even about war, really, it's about pop art and printing reproduction. I like the Goya best, I find it deeply moving. I've never seen the Umberto Boccioni or Barnaby Furnas paintings before but I like the depiction of chaos, energy and madness of war.

The reproductions are so "fuzzy" that key details are totally lost, notably the expression of the lead figure among those about to be shot in the Goya work which alone carries the power the work.

Also, the "commentary" is not only frequently wrong in details, it belies a hopelessly shallow take on what is being depicted.

Eye wash amounting to only to "click bait."

TVAG

Any selection is bound to be subjective, but I agree with most of what's been said. I do a talk on military art ('the Art of War') and a few of those pieces are in it. Most of them aren't. One of my focal pieces is Lady Butler's Scotland Forever!

… fascinating in that it has become an almost iconic vision of battle of Waterloo yet the artist wasn't even born in June 1815 (or even close): it was well researched, of course, but a work of the imagination.

Her breakthrough work, Roll Call was so popular when it was displayed in the Royal Academy that they had to call in the Police to control the crowds.

Lest that seems a touch Anglo-centric … here's another favourite …

There might even be a good poll suggestion in this topic

Phil

Horse feathers…

1. All of the Four Freedoms, Rockwell. Roosevelt's expression, and those 4 paintings came closer to encapsulating the American value system than most anything else.

2. Scotland For Ever! Thompson
3. The Nation Makers. Pyle. Lets face it, Pyle should occupy almost every slot in this. Siege of Vicksburg is one of the most haunting images I've ever seen.
4. Bunker Hill. Pyle
5. Samar, The Sacrifice of Taffy 3. Shepler.
6. Redoubtable at Trafalgar. Mayer
7. Napoleon Crossing the Alps. David. Honorable mention, The Charging Chasseur. Gericault.
8. Liberty Leading the People. Delacroix
9. The Death of Wolfe. West
10. Battle of the Virginia Capes. Zveg

OK add Washington Crossing the Delaware.

The Death of Wolfe is another very interesting picture !

Phil

Iirc it was at Versailles about 25 years ago called " The Black Knight".

Dreadful choices and academia at work !!

My fav is currently hanging in the Minnesota state capital, depicting the charge of the First Minnesota at Plum Run during the battle of Gettysburg. A critical though all but forgotten episode in that pivotal battle.
Of the 262 men in formation that day all made the charge, 42 made it back to their lines, no one refused or even hesitated. Their charge stopped two Confederate brigades of around 5,000 troops and allowed Hancock to bring up reserves and thus prevented the Confederates from getting onto the rear and flanks of the Union line. Had that occurred the outcome of that critical battle would have been entirely different.

There are some great paintings for sure but many of the associations with war are tenous or they are not well known or popular at all.

I love the Lichtenstein print, but it is an homage to comic books and not war.

I love the Dali work too, but a premonition to civil war, using baked beans as some metaphor or harbinger? Ok…….

The Kathe Kollwitz woodcutting is awesome, but I think it illustrates the dire situation in post world war 1 Germany more than that of actual warfare.

I've never seen the Furnas work before. Is that really the best ACW painting the article authors could think of? To me it says nothing of Antietam.

I've also never seen the Boccioni's work before either. But is it effective. However, were there no more well know paintings about the waste and futility of WW1 to pick from?

The Norman Rockwell painting seems to have had some historical basis from FDR's State of the Union address. But you can't see that from looking at the painting, without looking at it's title. To me it says Thanksgiving or Christmas. I guess context is everything. And since when was 1943 "post war America"?