Green Lion New World Art History
Historical Subjects
Works of art showing historical events such as battles, or portraits of historical figures are often given pride of place in public art galleries. Major European collections are often formed around royal art collections. Otherwise due to the paintings holding a greater importance than the subject matter of other art genres at the time the painting was acquired; and this may be also partly down to nationalism.
- Paintings in the Louvre museum in Paris, include Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, which was featured on the front cover of Eric Hobsbawm's "The Age of Revolution: Europe, 1789-1848". Hobsbawm praised individual artists of the Romantic movement, including Francisco Goya and J. M. W. Turner for their contribution to national art.
- The Prado, Madrid has paintings by Diego Velázquez including Las Meninas and El Cuadro de las Lanzas.
- The National Gallery, London has the The Fighting Téméraire . The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up" (1838) by Turner was voted the greatest painting belonging to a British art gallery, the nation's favourite painting, which was 27.00% of the accepted votes: this was in a BBC Radio 4 competition held in 2005, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
- Rembrandt's Night Watch with its roll call of the local militia is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
- Two versions of the Death of Marat painted by Edvard Munch in 1907, the composition of which resembles Charlotte Corday (1860) by Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry.
French Neoclassicism
History painting was the most elevated form of painting due to the important themes treated by the artists. Jacques-Louis David’s conversion to Neoclassicism in Rome, as seen in Oath of the Horatii, Le Serment des Horaces (1785), resulted in a style that could serve the needs of his King as well as the needs of the Revolution that followed. David, who became a deputy in the National Convention in 1792, at the start of The Reign of Terror in France documented a series of epoch-making historical events:
- Oath in the Tennis Court Le Serment du Jeu de paume, Musée national du Château de Versailles.
- Death of Marat, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels.
- The Coronation of Napoleon Le Sacre de Napoléon in Notre Dame de Paris (Louvre Museum).
