The War in art
Before the age of photography, historical painting was regarded as one of the finest genres in art, and as these paintings were sometimes official historical narratives, a certain tendency to pontificate and glorify was unavoidable. There are many paintings from the First Schleswig War (18481851) of battles regarded as resounding victories, but there are far fewer historical paintings from the Second Schleswig War (1864) – artists had difficulty finding inspiration in defeats.
Illustreret Tidende was first published in1859 and was full of reading material and pictures. This Danish weekly reproduced several hundred woodcuts from the War, based on drawings by artists who had been at the front. These were the press photographs of the day, in that events could be depicted a few weeks after they had taken place. One of the most famous historical paintings of the War was done as early as 1864-65 by Niels Simonsen. This is a greytone painting of infantrymen rescuing a
Vilhelm Rosenstand: Counterthrust of the 8th Brigade. 1894.
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