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Most Famous Paintings of Soldiers Ever

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Paintings of soldiers tend to be grand, heroic works that represent both bravery and suffering, reality and idealism. The following paintings cover the whole spectrum, and represent the ideals of each of these different feelings, in their own ways. Moreover, all of these paintings are incredibly famous, not just as a representation of war and of soldiers, but as a masterpiece of artistic creation, both in technique and interpretation.

1. Washington Crossing the Delaware

These paintings (there are many copies) of General George Washington crossing the Delaware River was painted by Emanuel Leutze. These paintings depict George Washington in a boat with a bunch of his soldiers rowing across the freezing Delaware River to launch a surprise attach against the Hessian soldiers currently stationed in Trenton.

2. Napoleon Crossing the Alps

These paintings (there are five copies) depict Napoleon Bonaparte on a rearing horse en route to crossing the Alps. In the background are a number of soldiers with whom he is making the journey. These paintings are known for being highly stylized, but are still considered great masterpieces of production.

3. The Night Watch

This painting is one of the most famous works by Rembrandt that depicts a number of soldiers getting ready to leave on a campaign. This painting is actually incorrectly named, but was coated with a dark varnish for most of its modern existence, giving it the appearance of taking place at night, though that was not the intention. It was commissioned by the Captain portrayed in the painting and his 17 soldiers, all of whom appear in the painting. It is one of a series of seven similar paintings the same soldiers commissioned under all different artists.

4. The Third of May 1808

This painting by Francisco Goya depicts a number of soldiers taking prisoners. It is said, along with The Second of May 1808, to commemorate Napoleon’s capture of the Spanish resistance. It is said to be one of the first paintings that depicted the humanity of war, since the captured prisoners look terrified and shocked in a way that is not normally depicted in the heroic portraits of history, most especially of soldiers.

5. Guernica

This is perhaps the most famous of all Pablo Picasso’s paintings. Despite being quite abstract, it clearly depicts the suffering of civilians during the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian soldiers.

Art Exhibits Commemorating Soldiers

Art has long served as a form of expression for releasing emotions and making points on life or thought in general. All of the following art exhibits commemorate a soldier or soldiers in the pieces of artwork they contain. Each art exhibit looks to bring emotion or feeling to some part of the process of war, often to raise awareness. Most importantly, each art exhibit here strikes emotion in the heart of the viewer, and raises a sympathy for the soldier and the plight of soldiers in general. However, each following art exhibit is not exactly what most people would think of as an art exhibit. Instead, they each have the qualities of art; of trying to bring an emotion and an understanding to the world of being a soldier. 1. Soldier This series of photographs is of nine soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are portraits done of the nine men between tours, which have been set up as an art exhibit on billboards around the country. This project was supported by a Vancouver art group, but this particular art exhibit, shown at soldiersface.com, has been just to memorialize each soldier. In addition, a more extensive art … Continue reading

War Heroes Gallery Sites

Around the world, in every war fought by people, there are war heroes to which other citizens inevitable owe their lives and to whom they pay their respects. In America alone there are thousands of memorial to war heroes which collectively receive millions of visitors annually. The difficulty of these memorials to our war heroes is that they are scattered around the country, making it difficult for people distances away to pay their respect to the war heroes they so admire. Fortunately, the internet offers a wonderful variety of sites, each with a picture gallery that stand in testament to all sorts of war heroes around the world, both providing a dissemination of the names and deeds of these war heroes, and allowing those who already with to pay their respects to view a gallery without the difficulty of long distance travel. 1. Lettersfront.org This website has a gallery of pictures of Jewish war heroes who served in Word War II. In addition, they have stories, documents, music, and a number of other electronized artifacts set to commemorate these war heroes in their gallery. 2. IraqWarHeroes.org/AfghanistanWarHeroes.org This website (the two addresses link to the same site) maintains an incredible gallery … Continue reading

Most Famous Artworks Memorializing Soldiers

There are artworks all over the country that memorialize our nation’s soldiers. Some of these soldiers have fought for America in our wars, while some were soldiers living in America that fought against the officially recognized “America”. No matter what, however, the following artworks are some of the most well known in this country, both in memorializing soldiers and as general artworks. Of course, all of these are a testament to our nation’s belief in its soldiers, and the important of having artworks, among other forms of gratitude, stand as a lasting remembrance of their sacrifices. 1. Crazy Horse Memorial This memorial perhaps has the record for the longest ongoing creation of any current artworks. It is a sculpture of the Oglala Lakota Crazy Horse, one of the most famous Native American soldiers of all time. It was begun in 1948 by a sculptor who died in 1982 and left his wife and ten kids to finish the project. They have repeatedly refused funding offers from the United States government and so work at a fairly slow pace. The face was completed in 1998, after 50 years, and is big enough to house all four of the faces on the … Continue reading

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