FAMOUS BATTLE PICTURES

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

FAMOUS BATTLE PICTURES

HOW ARTISTS HAVE PAINTED THE GLORIES OF WAR.

War, with all its horrors of carnage, plundering, devastation, and cruelty, has inspired the masterpieces of worldfamous artists. Tho realism of their battle pictures has stirred the universe more than any story which was ever written. So horrible, indeed, in their effects ar 0 some of these pictures thnt they have been banned by Governments. Both the Czar and the German Emperor were so afraid that tho pictures of Vasili Verestchagin, the eminent Russian painter and traveller, would lessen the martial spirit of their subjects that they forbade their exhibition. One of the most striking pictures ever painted by Verestchagin was that which represents Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Napoleon marches at the head of hi.s sullen, starving, ragged horde, and Vdrostchag'n lias contrived to represent in the French monarch' 6 countenance the tragic despair which must have possessed him. Curiously enough, when the Kaiser first saw this picture he turned to the artist and said, "In spite of iliat there will still be men who will want to conquer the world ; but they will nil per'sh like that"—a prophecy which the Kaiser h'mself seems likely to realise ere the present war comes to an end. Verestchagin painted war exactly as ho saw it. That was the secret of his success. He received seven bullets when painting under fire, and ult'matoly perished during the Russo-Japanese War of 1901. while on board Admiral MaknroflTg flagship, which was sunk by a mine. "THESCOCRGE OF GOD." Quite as realistic as anything Wrest. chagin ever did. however is Pierre Kritel's picture, "The Conquerors" which was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1892, and is ngw owned by John Wana-

maker, tlio Philarelphian W'llionaire. 1 no evulro ot the canvas «s occupied bjr mounted figure* ot Julius Caesar, Atula ol tho Hulls (/'lne Scourge ot God"-, Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great, and other military geniuses oi tho past, riding to conquest through grim avenues ot ueath and destruction, represented on each sdo of the horses by heaps of corpses, showing ghastly against the bacK-ground ol Uiacs and frowning cJili's. The picture is undoubtedly one ot the most powerful delineations of the horror and glory of war ever painted.

NAPOLEONS TORMENT Of tho priceless art treasures of Brussels at tho preseut time in the hands of the Germans, none have created greater sensation than tnepicture of "Napoleon in the Infernal Regions," painted by that eccentric genius, WierU. who could not be induced to dispose of ms works. Wiertz had a great hatred for Napoleon, and in the picture which he painted to illustrate the horrors of war ho shows him suffering all the torments of Hell hurrounded by his victims.

! Horrible in its realism, too. is the pici ture entitled "The Sunken Road at Waterloo,'' which startled visitors to i Burlington House some years ago, and depicts the charge, of 3,500 Cuirassiers upon tfie British infantry 0 n the sunken road to Ohaiu. Tho Cuirassiers had not noticed a ravine between them and tho British troops, with the result that horses and men fell headlong on top ot onu another, until the whole ravine was a seething mass of noises and men with weapons, "struggling with their feet in tho air," to quote the words ol \ icI tor Hugo in "Les Miserables." who, in I that immortal work, gives the account I which inspired the artist. Alter the battle, it is saiJ. 2.000 horses and 1.000 I men were found in the sunken road. I Happily all our battJo pictures are Lnot of such a gruesome character, and nianv. like that ot "The Battle for the Standard," depicting tho capture of a r'reiic.h eagle bv the Soots. Greys at, Waterloo; "The Roll Call." the niasterp'eco which Lady Butler painted «hen slio was only twenty-three years of age, and which was purchased by Queen \ :c. toria. and her equally famous pictures, •' Kioreat F.tonn." lu this battle the adjutant of the •"iStb. an old Etouiau. had bi s horse sbot uuder him. but EI«o, another Eton boy- sliOWJed to him. "Come along, Monck. 'JKloreat Etoua —tho eld school ay—"«c must be in the first rank." Scarcely had these words left his lips than he was struck bv a shot mid fell dead. ' No arlielo on lbs subject would be complete uiiboui mention of what many people consider I" Im: the ninM famous battl,, picture— ,r The Meeting ol W clji„„t„„ and Bluehor after the Battle oi Waterloo." which occupies the whole side of one of the anterooms to tho [Jouse of Lords-, and «h'ch bus beeu

[ viewed by tens of thousands of people. The Crimea inspired many wonderful battlo pictures, ane of the most pathetic, perhaps, being "The Return from Crimea," painted by Sir Noel Paton, showing the return to his cottage ot a corporal of Fusilier Guards with an empty sleeve, head bandaged, and a twelvemonth's beard. He sits with closed eyes, while his wife kneels at Ins feet and clasps his waist. Prints of this picture are to be seen in thousands of homes throughout the country. Of naval battle pictures, perhaps the most notable is that winch illustrates the famous incident at the Battle of Copenhagen, when Nelson refuses to seo the signal of recall, painted by Thomas M. Hemy. the famous marine artist. Tho painting is one of the most inspiring sea pictures which have eve rbeen exhibited.