Looking at Art and War from the 1600 to 1900

The Surrender of Breda by Jacques Callot

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The Surrender of Breda was the first piece of artwork criticising war, there was no anti war art until this piece in 1634 but a year before this French artist Jacques Callot released his series of prints 'Miseries and Misfortunes of War' (1633) a collection of eighteen etchings showing executions, killings and terrors of war.

The Hanging by Jacques Callot

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The Hanging (Plate 11) is a very emotive piece from Callot's collection. There is a tree with numerous hanging bodies with their necks broken and a priest stood on a step ladder blessing them.

In the 18th century the battle paintings become documents of contemporary history. There were two types, a heroic portrait or a picture of a battle. These pictures show the public an insight of what was happening on the battle field. These paintings and sculptures show the precedents, processes and contexts of war.

There’s no help for it by
Farncisco de Goya y Lucientes

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In the 1800 Farncisco de Goya y Lucientes an onlooker and observer of war, in 1808 Goya started a series of eighty-two prints known as The Disasters of War. Between 1793-1808 a lot of conflict and warfare erupted. Goya's prints were a tribute to Callot and his collection Miseries and Misfortunes of War. Goya's print There’s No Help For It is of men  that have been tied to posts and are about or have been executed. The print is disturbing to look at but it is worse seeing all the hanged bodies in Callot's print The Hanging.



The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian by Edouard Manet

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In 1870 - 1871 the Franco-Prussian War happened, some artists around this time looked at less heroic subjects and concentrated on the harsher consequences of war. Edouard Manet's The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian is a painting inspired by Goya's collection.

Photograph of Lady Elizabeth Butler

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The Roll Call by Lady Elizabeth Butler

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Lady Elizabeth was an artist in the 1870s. Her painting subject started off looking at religious subjects. A trip to Paris in 1870 exposed her to paintings of battle scenes by Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, Alphonse de Neuville and Edouard Detaille. This inspired her first battle painting Missing (1873). The painting The Roll Call (1874) which was displayed at the Academy turned her into a celebrity. Her paintings shows the soldiers as individuals and makes the painting more personal. Other paintings I have looked at the people in them don't have personalities.

Bibliography

Laura Brandon, 2007. Art and War. Edition. I. B. Tauris.