Editing History painting

{{short description|Genre in painting defined by narrative subjects}}
[[File:Titian - Diana and Actaeon - 1556-1559.jpg|thumb|350px|''[[Diana and Actaeon (Titian)|Diana and Actaeon]]'', [[Titian]], 1556&ndash;1559, a classic history painting, showing a dramatic moment in a mythological story, with elements of figure painting, [[landscape painting]] and [[still-life]].]]
[[File:Judas Returning the Thirty Silver Pieces - Rembrandt.jpg|thumb|''[[Judas]] Returning the Thirty Silver Pieces'' by [[Rembrandt]], 1629.]]

'''History painting''' is a genre in [[painting]] defined by its subject matter rather than any [[artistic style]] or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a [[narrative story]], most often (but not exclusively) [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Roman mythology]] and [[Bible stories]], opposed to a specific and static subject, as in [[portrait]], [[still life]], and [[landscape painting]]. The term is derived from the wider senses of the word ''historia'' in [[Latin]] and ''histoire'' in French, meaning  "story" or "narrative", and essentially means "story painting". Most history paintings are not of scenes from [[history]], especially paintings from before about 1850.

In modern English, "historical painting" is sometimes used to describe the painting of scenes from history in its narrower sense, especially for 19th-century art, excluding religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects, which are included in the broader term "history painting", and before the 19th century were the most common subjects for history paintings.

History paintings almost always contain a number of figures, often a large number, and normally show some typical states on that is a moment in a narrative. The genre includes depictions of moments in religious narratives, above all the ''[[Life of Christ in art|Life of Christ]]'', Middle Eastern culture as well as narrative scenes from [[mythology]], and also [[allegorical]] scenes.<ref>[http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/glossary/history-painting National Gallery, Glossary entry]; [http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg61/gg61-main1.html History Painting Gallery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160830163808/http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg61/gg61-main1.html |date=2016-08-30 }} from The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; Green and Seddon, 7-8; Harrison, 105-106</ref> These groups were for long the most frequently painted; works such as [[Michelangelo]]'s [[Sistine Chapel ceiling]] are therefore history paintings, as are most very large paintings before the 19th century. The term covers large paintings in [[oil on canvas]] or [[fresco]] produced between the Renaissance and the late 19th century, after which the term is generally not used even for the many works that still meet the basic definition.<ref>Green and Seddon, 11-15</ref>

History painting may be used interchangeably with '''historical painting''', and was especially so used before the 20th century.<ref>{{cite web|title=History painting|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/History+painting|work=Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary|publisher=The Free Dictionary}}</ref> Where a distinction is made, "historical painting" is the painting of scenes from secular history, whether specific episodes or generalized scenes. In the 19th century, historical painting in this sense became a distinct genre. In phrases such as "historical painting materials", "historical" means in use before about 1900, or some earlier date.<ref>{{Cite web |last=lobo |date=2020-07-02 |title=The History of Painting. The evolution of Art |url=https://lobopopart.com.br/en/the-history-of-painting/ |access-date=2023-06-08 |website=Lobo Pop Art |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Prestige==
[[File:Jacques-Louis David - Oath of the Horatii - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Jacques-Louis David]]'s ''[[Oath of the Horatii]]'', 1786, with a scene from ancient history.]]
History paintings were traditionally regarded as the highest form of Western painting, occupying the most prestigious place in the [[hierarchy of genres]], and considered the equivalent to the [[epic (genre)|epic]] in literature. In his  ''[[De Pictura]]'' of 1436, [[Leon Battista Alberti]] had argued that multi-figure history painting was the noblest form of art, as being the most difficult, which required mastery of all the others, because it was a visual form of history, and because it had the greatest potential to move the viewer. He placed emphasis on the ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression.<ref>Blunt, 11-12; Barlow, 1</ref>

This view remained general until the 19th century, when artistic movements began to struggle against the establishment institutions of [[academic art]], which continued to adhere to it. At the same time, there was from the latter part of the 18th century an increased interest in depicting in the form of history painting moments of drama from recent or contemporary history, which had long largely been confined to [[military art|battle-scenes]] and scenes of formal surrenders and the like. Scenes from ancient history had been popular in the [[early Renaissance]], and once again became common in the [[Baroque]] and [[Rococo]] periods, and still more so with the rise of [[Neoclassicism]]. In some 19th or 20th century contexts, the term may refer specifically to paintings of scenes from secular history, rather than those from religious narratives, literature or mythology.

==Development==
[[File:Leo the Great and Attila by Raffael.png|thumb|right|''[[The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila]]'' by [[Raphael]] and his workshop, 1513–14]]
The term is generally not used in art history in speaking of medieval painting, although the Western tradition was developing in large [[altarpiece]]s, fresco cycles, and other works, as well as [[miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]] in [[illuminated manuscripts]]. It comes to the fore in [[Italian Renaissance painting]], where a series of increasingly ambitious works were produced, many still religious, but several, especially in Florence, which did actually feature near-contemporary historical scenes such as the set of three huge canvases on ''[[The Battle of San Romano]]'' by [[Paolo Uccello]], the abortive ''[[Battle of Cascina (Michelangelo)|Battle of Cascina]]'' by Michelangelo and the ''[[The Battle of Anghiari (painting)|Battle of Anghiari]]'' by [[Leonardo da Vinci]], neither of which were completed. Scenes from ancient history and mythology were also popular. Writers such as Alberti and the following century [[Giorgio Vasari]] in his ''[[Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects|Lives of the Artists]]'', followed public and artistic opinion in judging the best painters above all on their production of large works of history painting (though in fact the only modern (post-classical) work described in ''[[De Pictura]]'' is [[Giotto]]'s huge ''[[Navicella (mosaic)|Navicella]]'' in mosaic).  Artists continued for centuries to strive to make their reputation by producing such works, often neglecting genres to which their talents were better suited.
[[File:Angelo Bronzino 001.jpg|thumb|''[[Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time]]'', [[Agnolo Bronzino]], {{Circa|1545}}. According to [[André Félibien]] allegory was the highest form of all history painting.]]

There was some objection to the term, as many writers preferred terms such as "poetic painting" (''poesia''), or wanted to make a distinction between the "true" ''istoria'', covering history including biblical and religious scenes, and the ''fabula'', covering pagan myth, allegory, and scenes from fiction, which could not be regarded as true.<ref>See Reynolds below; nonetheless he bowed to convention: "In conformity to custom, I call this part of the art history painting; it ought to be called poetical, as in reality it is." (''Discources'', IV); for debates over terminology in the Italian Renaissance, see Bull, 391–394</ref> The large works of [[Raphael]] were long considered, with those of Michelangelo, as the finest models for the genre.

In the [[Raphael Rooms]] in the [[Vatican Palace]], allegories and historical scenes are mixed together, and the [[Raphael Cartoons]] show scenes from the Gospels, all in the [[Grand Manner]] that from the [[High Renaissance]] became associated with, and often expected in, history painting. In the Late Renaissance and [[Baroque]] the painting of actual history tended to degenerate into panoramic battle-scenes with the victorious monarch or general perched on a horse accompanied with his retinue, or formal scenes of ceremonies, although some artists managed to make a masterpiece from such unpromising material, as [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]] did with his ''[[The Surrender of Breda]]''.

An influential formulation of the hierarchy of genres, confirming the history painting at the top, was made in 1667 by [[André Félibien]], a historiographer, architect and theoretician of French classicism became the classic statement of the theory for the 18th century:<blockquote>Celui qui fait parfaitement des païsages est au-dessus d'un autre qui ne fait que des fruits, des fleurs ou des coquilles. Celui qui peint des animaux vivants est plus estimable que ceux qui ne représentent que des choses mortes & sans mouvement; & comme la figure de l'homme est le plus parfait ouvrage de Dieu sur la Terre, il est certain aussi que celui qui se rend l'imitateur de Dieu en peignant des figures humaines, est beaucoup plus excellent que tous les autres ... un Peintre qui ne fait que des portraits, n'a pas encore cette haute perfection de l'Art, & ne peut prétendre à l'honneur que reçoivent les plus sçavans. Il faut pour cela passer d'une seule figure à la représentation de plusieurs ensemble; il faut traiter l'histoire & la fable; il faut représenter de grandes actions comme les historiens, ou des sujets agréables comme les Poëtes; & montant encore plus haut, il faut par des compositions allégoriques, sçavoir couvrir sous le voile de la fable les vertus des grands hommes, & les mystères les plus relevez.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=jl8IAeoj-7IC&dq=Hierarchy+of+genres+painting&pg=PA97 Books.google.co.uk], translation</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>He who produces perfect landscapes is above another who only produces fruit, flowers or seashells. He who paints living animals is more than those who only represent dead things without movement, and as man is the most perfect work of God on the earth, it is also certain that he who becomes an imitator of God in representing human figures, is much more excellent than all the others ... a painter who only does portraits still does not have the highest perfection of his art, and cannot expect the honour due to the most skilled. For that he must pass from representing a single figure to several together; history and myth must be depicted; great events must be represented as by historians, or like the poets, subjects that will please, and climbing still higher, he must have the skill to cover under the veil of myth the virtues of great men in allegories, and the mysteries they reveal".</blockquote>

By the late 18th century, with both religious and mytholological painting in decline, there was an increased demand for paintings of scenes from history, including contemporary history. This was in part driven by the changing audience for ambitious paintings, which now increasingly made their reputation in public exhibitions rather than by impressing the owners of and visitors to palaces and public buildings. Classical history remained popular, but scenes from national histories were often the best-received. From 1760 onwards, the [[Society of Artists of Great Britain]], the first body to organize regular exhibitions in London, awarded two generous prizes each year to paintings of subjects from British history.<ref>Strong, 17, and 32–34 and generally on growth of historical painting.</ref> 
[[Image:Benjamin West 005.jpg|thumb|left|300px|[[Benjamin West]], ''[[The Death of General Wolfe]]'' (1770), an early example of the vogue for painting scenes from recent history.]]

The unheroic nature of modern dress was regarded as a serious difficulty. When, in 1770, [[Benjamin West]] proposed to paint ''[[The Death of General Wolfe]]'' in contemporary dress, he was firmly instructed to use classical costume by many people. He ignored these comments and showed the scene in modern dress. Although [[George III]] refused to purchase the work, West succeeded both in overcoming his critics' objections and inaugurating a more historically accurate style in such paintings.<ref>Rothenstein, 16–17; Strong, 24–26</ref> Other artists depicted scenes, regardless of when they occurred, in classical dress and for a long time, especially during the [[French Revolution]], history painting often focused on depictions of the heroic male nude.

The large production, using the finest French artists, of propaganda paintings glorifying the exploits of [[Napoleon]], were matched by works, showing both victories and losses, from the anti-Napoleonic alliance by artists such as [[Francisco Goya|Goya]] and [[J. M. W. Turner]]. [[Théodore Géricault]]'s ''[[The Raft of the Medusa]]'' (1818–1819) was a sensation, appearing to update the history painting for the 19th century, and showing anonymous figures famous only for being victims of what was then a famous and controversial disaster at sea. Conveniently their clothes had been worn away to classical-seeming rags by the point the painting depicts. At the same time the demand for traditional large religious history paintings very largely fell away.
[[File:David Wilkie Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch.jpg|thumb|300px|[[David Wilkie (artist)|Sir David Wilkie]], ''[[The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch]]'', 1822. Genre or history painting? The types have merged, in a way typical of the 19th century.]]

In the mid-nineteenth century there arose a style known as [[historicism (art)|historicism]], which marked a formal imitation of historical styles and/or artists. Another development in the nineteenth century was the treatment of historical subjects, often on a large scale, with the values of [[Genre works|genre painting]], the depiction of scenes of everyday life, and [[anecdote]]. Grand depictions of events of great public importance were supplemented with scenes depicting more personal incidents in the lives of the great, or of scenes centred on unnamed figures involved in historical events, as in the [[Troubadour style]]. At the same time scenes of ordinary life with moral, political or satirical content became often the main vehicle for expressive interplay between figures in painting, whether given a modern or historical setting.

By the later 19th century, history painting was often explicitly rejected by [[avant-garde]] movements such as the [[Impressionism|Impressionists]] (except for [[Édouard Manet]]) and the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]]s, and according to one recent writer "[[Modernism]] was to a considerable extent built upon the rejection of History Painting... All other genres are deemed capable of entering, in one form or another, the 'pantheon' of modernity considered, but History Painting is excluded".<ref>Barlow, 1</ref>

==History painting and historical painting==	
[[File:Past and Present Number One.jpg|thumb|left|"No. 1, Misfortune" from [[Augustus Egg]]'s ''[[Past and Present (paintings)|Past and Present]]'', 1858. The husband has discovered his wife's infidelity. ''Prayer'' and ''Despair'' complete the set.]]

===The terms===
Initially, "history painting" and "historical painting" were used interchangeably in English, as when Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]] in his fourth ''Discourse'' uses both indiscriminately to cover "history painting", while saying "...it ought to be called poetical, as in reality it is", reflecting the French term ''peinture historique'', one equivalent of "history painting".  The terms began to separate in the 19th century, with "historical painting" becoming a sub-group of "history painting" restricted to subjects taken from history in its normal sense.  In 1853 [[John Ruskin]] asked his audience: "What do you at present ''mean'' by historical painting? Now-a-days it means the endeavour, by the power of imagination, to portray some historical event of past days."<ref>Lecture IV, p. 172, ''Lectures on Architecture and Painting: Delivered at Edinburgh, in November, 1853'', 1854, Wiley, [https://archive.org/details/lecturesonarchi02ruskgoog/page/n194 <!-- pg=172 quote="historical painting". --> Internet Archive].</ref>  So for example [[Harold Wethey]]'s three-volume catalogue of the paintings of [[Titian]] (Phaidon, 1969–75) is divided between "Religious Paintings", "Portraits", and "Mythological and Historical Paintings", though both volumes I and III cover what is included in the term "History Paintings".  This distinction is useful but is by no means generally observed, and the terms are still often used in a confusing manner. Because of the potential for confusion modern academic writing tends to avoid the phrase "historical painting", talking instead of "historical subject matter" in history painting, but where the phrase is still used in contemporary scholarship it will normally mean the painting of subjects from history, very often in the 19th century.<ref>As shown in the usages in Barlow, Strong, and Wright</ref>  "Historical painting" may also be used, especially in discussion of painting techniques in conservation studies, to mean "old", as opposed to modern or recent painting.<ref>As in "The beautifully renovated Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will open its doors to the public in 2013. To celebrate this event the Rijksmuseum will host a three-day symposium on Historical Painting Techniques. The central theme of the symposium will be the technical study of historically used painting techniques, the historical painting materials, their origin and trade, and their application in the painter’s workshop." [https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/research-and-library/painting-techniques Rijksmuseum, "Painting Techniques - Call for Papers"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531094855/https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/research-and-library/painting-techniques |date=2013-05-31 }}</ref>
	
In 19th-century British writing on art the terms "'''subject painting'''" or "anecdotic" painting were often used for works in a line of development going back to [[William Hogarth]] of monoscenic depictions of crucial moments in an implied narrative with unidentified characters,<ref>{{cite book|author=Pamela M. Fletcher|title=Narrating Modernity: The British Problem Picture, 1895-1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvT_0aOkOSkC&pg=PA146|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-3568-0|page=146 note 12}}</ref> such as [[William Holman Hunt]]'s 1853 painting ''[[The Awakening Conscience]]'' or [[Augustus Egg]]'s ''[[Past and Present (paintings)|Past and Present]]'', a set of three paintings, updating sets by Hogarth such as ''[[Marriage à-la-mode (Hogarth)|Marriage à-la-mode]]''.

===19th century===
[[File:Richard Parkes Bonington - Henri III - WGA02429.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Richard Parkes Bonington]], ''[[Henri III of France]]'', 1827–28, a small "Intimate Romantic" anecdotal scene from history]]
History painting was the dominant form of [[academic art|academic painting]] in the various national academies in the 18th century, and for most of the 19th, and  increasingly historical subjects dominated.  During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods the heroic treatment of contemporary history in a frankly propagandistic fashion by [[Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros]], [[Jacques-Louis David]], [[Carle Vernet]] and others was supported by the French state, but after the fall of Napoleon in 1815 the French governments were not regarded as suitable for heroic treatment and many artists retreated further into the past to find subjects, though in Britain depicting the victories of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] mostly occurred after they were over.  Another path was to choose contemporary subjects that were oppositional to government either at home and abroad, and many of what were arguably the last great generation of history paintings were protests at contemporary episodes of repression or outrages at home or abroad: [[Francisco Goya|Goya]]'s ''[[The Third of May 1808]]'' (1814), [[Théodore Géricault]]'s ''[[The Raft of the Medusa]]'' (1818–19), [[Eugène Delacroix]]'s ''[[The Massacre at Chios]]'' (1824) and ''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'' (1830).  These were heroic, but showed heroic suffering by ordinary civilians.
[[File:PAUL DELAROCHE - Ejecución de Lady Jane Grey (National Gallery de Londres, 1834).jpg|thumb|[[Paul Delaroche]], ''[[The Execution of Lady Jane Grey]]'', 1833, [[National Gallery]], London]]

[[File:Conversión del duque de Gandía, Museo del Prado.jpg|thumb|[[José Moreno Carbonero]], ''Conversion of the Duke of Gandía'', 1881, [[Museo del Prado]], Madrid]]
[[Romanticism|Romantic artists]] such as Géricault and Delacroix, and those from other movements such as the English [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]] continued to regard history painting as the ideal for their most ambitious works. Others such as [[Jan Matejko]] in Poland,<ref>(In Polish) [[Maciej Masłowski]]: Dzieje Polski w obrazach, [[Warsaw]] 1962, ed. by "Arkady Publishers"</ref> [[Vasily Surikov]] in Russia, [[José Moreno Carbonero]] in Spain and [[Paul Delaroche]] in France became specialized painters of large historical subjects.  The ''[[style troubadour]]'' ("[[troubadour]] style") was a somewhat derisive French term for earlier paintings of medieval and Renaissance scenes, which were often small and depicting moments of anecdote rather than drama; [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]], [[Richard Parkes Bonington]] and  [[Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle|Henri Fradelle]] painted such works. Sir [[Roy Strong]] calls this type of work the "Intimate Romantic", and in French it was known as the "peinture de genre historique" or "peinture anecdotique" ("historical genre painting" or "anecdotal painting").<ref>Strong, 36-40; Wright, 269-273, French terms on p. 269</ref>

Church commissions for large group scenes from the Bible had greatly reduced, and historical painting became very significant.  Especially in the early 19th century, much historical painting depicted specific moments from historical literature, with the novels of Sir [[Walter Scott]] a particular favourite, in France and other European countries as much as Great Britain.<ref>Wright, throughout; Strong, 30-32</ref>  By the middle of the century medieval scenes were expected to be very carefully researched, using the work of historians of costume, architecture and all elements of decor that were becoming available. An example of this is the extensive research of Byzantine architecture, clothing, and decoration made in Parisian museums and libraries by [[José Moreno Carbonero|Moreno Carbonero]] for his masterwork ''The Entry of Roger de Flor in Constantinople''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artehistoria.com/es/obra/entrada-de-roger-de-flor-en-constantinopla|title=Entrada de Roger de Flor en Constantinopla {{!}} artehistoria.com|website=www.artehistoria.com|language=es|access-date=2018-11-16|archive-date=2018-11-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116173823/https://www.artehistoria.com/es/obra/entrada-de-roger-de-flor-en-constantinopla|url-status=dead}}</ref> The provision of examples and expertise for artists, as well as revivalist industrial designers, was one of the motivations for the establishment of museums like the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] in London.<ref>Strong, 24-26, 47-73; Wright, 269-273</ref>

New techniques of [[printmaking]] such as the [[chromolithograph]] made good quality reproductions both relatively cheap and very widely accessible, and also hugely profitable for artist and publisher, as the sales were so large.<ref>Harding, 7-9</ref>  Historical painting often had a close relationship with [[Nationalism]], and painters like Matejko in Poland could play an important role in fixing the prevailing historical narrative of national history in the popular mind.<ref>Strong, 32-36</ref>  In France, ''[[L'art Pompier]]'' ("Fireman art") was a derisory term for official academic historical painting,<ref>Harding, throughout</ref> and in a final phase, "History painting of a debased sort, scenes of brutality and terror, purporting to illustrate episodes from Roman and Moorish history, were Salon sensations.  On the overcrowded walls of the exhibition galleries, the paintings that shouted loudest got the attention".<ref>White, 91</ref>  [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] painting was an alternative genre that offered similar exotic costumes and decor, and at least as much opportunity to depict sex and violence.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="160" heights="160" perrow="7">
File:San Romano Battle (Paolo Uccello, London) 01.jpg|[[Paolo Uccello]], 1438–1440, ''[[The Battle of San Romano]]'', [[Uffizi]], [[Florence]]
File:CARRACCI, Annibale - An allegory of Truth and Time (1584-5).JPG|[[Annibale Carracci]], ''[[An Allegory of Truth and Time]]'' (1584–85), an allegorical history painting
File:'Allegory of Magnificence' by Eustache LeSueur, Dayton Art Institute.JPG|''Allegory of Magnificence'', [[Eustache Le Sueur]], {{Circa|1654}}
File:Charles Le Brun - Entry of Alexander into Babylon.JPG|[[Charles Le Brun]], 1664, ''Entry of Alexander into Babylon'', [[Louvre]], Paris
File:Sebastiano Ricci 057b.jpg|Sebastiano Ricci, ''Allegory of France as Minerva Trampling Ignorance and Crowning Virtue'', 1717–18
File:David - The Death of Socrates.jpg|[[Jacques-Louis David]], 1787, ''[[The Death of Socrates]]'', {{lang|fr|[[École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts]]|italic=no}}, Paris
File:Vincenzo Camuccini - La morte di Cesare.jpg|[[Vincenzo Camuccini]], ''[[Assassination of Julius Caesar]]'', 1805
File:Jacques-Louis David 006.jpg|[[Jacques-Louis David]], ''[[The Coronation of Napoleon]]'', {{Circa|1807}}
File:Peinture Palais de Justice de Toulouse.jpg|''Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime'', [[Pierre-Paul Prud'hon]], {{Circa|1805–1808}}
File:El dos de mayo de 1808 en Madrid.jpg|[[Francisco de Goya]], 1814, ''[[The Second of May 1808]]'', [[Museo del Prado]], [[Madrid]]
File:Delacroix sardanapalus 1828 950px.jpg|[[Eugène Delacroix]], 1827, ''[[Death of Sardanapalus]]'', Louvre, Paris
File:Karl Brullov - The Last Day of Pompeii - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Karl Bryullov]], ''[[The Last Day of Pompeii]]'', 1827–1833
File:Eugène Delacroix - Le 28 Juillet. La Liberté guidant le peuple.jpg|[[Eugène Delacroix]], ''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'', 1830, Louvre, Paris
File:Patrick Henry Rothermel.jpg|''Patrick Henry Before the Virginia House of Burgesses'', 1851, [[Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial]], [[Brookneal, Virginia|Brookneal]]
File:Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851.jpg|[[Emanuel Leutze]], ''[[Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)|Washington Crossing the Delaware]]'', 1851, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York
File:John Everett Millais - Christ in the House of His Parents (`The Carpenter's Shop') - Google Art Project.jpg|[[John Everett Millais]], ''[[Christ in the House of His Parents]]'', 1854–1860, [[Tate Britain]], London
File:William Holman Hunt - The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple.jpg|[[William Holman Hunt]], ''[[The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple]]'', 1854–1860, [[Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery]], [[Birmingham]]
File:Adolph Menzel - Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Adolph Menzel]], ''Flute concerto of [[Fredrick the Great]]'', {{Circa|1852}}
File:Jan Matejko, Stańczyk.jpg|[[Jan Matejko]], ''[[Stanczyk]]'', 1862, [[National Museum in Warsaw]]
File:Stephen Báthory at Pskov by Jan Matejko (1872).png|[[Jan Matejko]], ''[[Stephen Báthory at Pskov|Stefan Batory at Pskov]]'', [[oil painting]], (1872)
File:Jan Matejko, Bitwa pod Grunwaldem.jpg|[[Battle of Grunwald]] by [[Jan Matejko]], 1878, [[National Museum in Warsaw]]
File:Wernerprokla.jpg|[[Anton von Werner]], ''[[Proclamation of the German Empire (paintings)|Proclamation of the German Empire]]'', 1885
File:Ilja Jefimowitsch Repin 009.jpg|[[Ilya Repin]], ''[[Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks]]'', 1880–1891, [[State Russian Museum]], St. Petersburg
File:Surikov streltsi.jpg|[[Vasily Surikov]], ''[[:ru:Утро стрелецкой казни|Morning of Streltsy's Execution]]'', 1881, [[Tretyakov Gallery]], [[Moscow]]
File:Jan Matejko - The Maid of Orleans - MNK II-a-383 - National Museum Kraków.jpg|[[Jan Matejko]], ''The Maid of Orléans'', 1886, [[National Museum, Poznań]]
File:Entrada de Roger de Flor en Constantinopla (Palacio del Senado de España).jpg|[[José Moreno Carbonero]], 1888, ''The Entry of Roger de Flor in Constantinople'', [[Senate of Spain|Senate Palace]], [[Madrid]]
File:The Welcome by the Mayor of Rotterdam of William IV, Prince of Orange and his Consort Anna of Great Britain, 1734.jpg|Jacob Spoel, 1867, ''The Welcome by the Mayors of [[Rotterdam]] of [[William IV, Prince of Orange]] and his Consort [[Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange|Anne of Great Britain]]''
The Battle of Culloden.jpg|[[David Morier]], ''[[An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745]],'' 1746, [[Palace of Holyroodhouse]]
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Classicism]]
* [[Genre painting]]
* [[History of painting]]
* [[List of Orientalist artists]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Barlow, Paul, [https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:9MoshlkHpFYJ:www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/uploads/docs/s1_23.pdf+Paul+Barlow+Professor&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjcjev4zZWsyXRk2Qb0TAbQHs52uwq7cmMmRBnlY97ah2aGpKYtVsGu-QOIeMciCrUfH45N1knB0NFikusclJybCwP5TMoAMaQJNS8TPzZFOBvOQvtUrmEPUT--Kqw8tmhvKr8G&sig=AHIEtbSRK7DWVGwdLbYF38jvUAihfTFS0Q "The Death of History Painting in Nineteenth-Century Art?" PDF], ''Visual Culture in Britain'', Volume 6, Number 1, Summer 2005, pp.&nbsp;1–13(13)
*[[Anthony Blunt|Blunt, Anthony]], ''Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450-1660'', 1940 (refs to 1985 edn), [[OUP]], {{ISBN|0-19-881050-4}}
* Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005, {{ISBN|0195219236}}
*Green, David and Seddon, Peter, ''History Painting Reassessed: The Representation of History in Contemporary Art'', 2000, Manchester University Press, {{ISBN|9780719051685}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_m5y85mHzQC&pg=PA7 google books]
*Harding, James. ''Artistes pompiers: French academic art in the 19th century'', 1979, New York: Rizzoli
*Harrison, Charles, ''An Introduction to Art'', 2009, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|9780300109153}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=94RjEO1C-i4C&pg=PA79 google books]
*[[John Rothenstein|Rothenstein, John]], ''An Introduction to English Painting'', 2002 (reissue), I.B.Tauris, {{ISBN|9781860646782}}
*[[Roy Strong|Strong, Roy]]. ''And when did you last see your father? The Victorian Painter and British History'', 1978, Thames and Hudson, {{ISBN|0500271321}}
*White, Harrison C., ''Canvases and Careers: Institutional Change in the French Painting World'', 1993 (2nd edn), University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|9780226894874}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2D_ehhO_14QC&pg=PA91 google books]
*Wright, Beth Segal, ''Scott's Historical Novels and French Historical Painting 1815-1855'', ''[[The Art Bulletin]]'', Vol. 63, No. 2 (Jun., 1981), pp.&nbsp;268–287,  [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050117 JSTOR]

==Further reading==
*Ayers, William (ed.), ''Picturing History: American Painting 1770–1903'', {{ISBN|0-8478-1745-8}}.

==External links==
{{commons category|History paintings}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Painting}}
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[[Category:History paintings|*]]
[[Category:Works about history|Paintings]]