Apr 14, 2009

Best Historical Paintings

I've been thinking about starting a historically themed painting (ideas still brimming, so I won't talk much about it). I thought it might be good, however, to include some of my favorite pieces with moments in history as their themes. Here, in no particular order, they are:


And when did you last see your father? by William Frederick Yeames
(portraying the questioning of a Royalist's son by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War)


Cicero Denouncing Catiline by Cesare Maccari.
(portraying Marcus Tullius Cicero making one of his impassioned speeches against Lucius Sergius Catilina, who was planning a coup in the late Roman Republic; "Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?")


Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man") by Antonio Ciseri
(portraying Pilate presenting Christ to the people of Jerusalem before sending him to be crucified)


Ivan the Terrible killing his son by Ilya Repin
(portraying Ivan the Terrible, after having argued with his son and hit him on the head with his staff harder than intended, cradling his body)


Gassed by John Singer Sargent
(portraying soldiers that have been blinded by mustard gas in World War I)


Surrender at Appomattox by Thomas Lovell
(portraying Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively marking the end of the Civil War; the painting is notable for its accuracy regarding who was there, what they wore, and what the room and furniture looked like)

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