War & conflict

Featured Artworks

Pont Neuf Paris

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1872)

In Pont Neuf Paris, Pierre-Auguste Renoir turns the oldest bridge in Paris into a stage where light and movement bind a city back together. From a high perch, he orchestrates crowds, carriages, gas lamps, the rippling Seine, and a fluttering tricolor so that everyday bustle reads as civic grace [1].

Beach at Trouville

Claude Monet (1870)

Beach at Trouville turns the Normandy resort into a stage where modern leisure meets restless weather. Monet’s diagonal boardwalk, wind-whipped red flags, and white parasols marshal the eye through a day animated by light and air rather than by individual stories [1][2]. The work asserts Impressionism’s claim to immediacy—there is even sand embedded in the paint from working on site [1].

Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets

Édouard Manet (1872)

Édouard Manet’s Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets is a close, modern portrait built as a symphony in black punctuated by a tiny violet knot. Side‑light chisels the face from a cool, silvery ground while hat, scarf, and coat merge into one dark silhouette, and the eyes are painted strikingly black for effect [1]. The single touch of violets introduces a discreet, coded tenderness within the portrait’s refined restraint [1][3][4].

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian

Édouard Manet (1867–1868)

Manet’s The Execution of Emperor Maximilian confronts state violence with a cool, reportorial style. The wall of gray-uniformed riflemen, the fragmented canvas, and the dispassionate loader at right turn the killing into impersonal machinery that implicates the viewer [1][2].

Guernica

Pablo Picasso (1937)

Guernica is a monumental, monochrome indictment of modern war, compressing a town’s annihilation into a frantic tangle of bodies, beasts, and light. Across the canvas, a shrieking horse, a stoic bull, a weeping mother with her dead child, and a fallen soldier stage a civic tragedy rather than a heroic battle. The harsh electric bulb clashes with a fragile oil lamp, turning the scene into a stark drama of terror and witness.

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper (1942)

Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks turns a corner diner into a sealed stage where fluorescent light and curved glass hold four figures in suspended time. The empty streets and the “PHILLIES” cigar sign sharpen the sense of urban solitude while hinting at wartime vigilance. The result is a cool, lucid image of modern life: illuminated, open to view, and emotionally out of reach.

The Third of May 1808

Francisco Goya (1814)

Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 turns a specific reprisal after Madrid’s uprising into a universal indictment of state violence. A lantern’s harsh glare isolates a civilian who raises his arms in a cruciform gesture as a faceless firing squad executes prisoners, transforming reportage into modern anti-war testimony [1][2].

The Weeping Woman

Pablo Picasso (1937)

Picasso’s The Weeping Woman turns private mourning into a public, iconic emblem of civilian grief. Shattered planes, acidic greens and purples, and jewel-like tears force the viewer to feel the fracture of perception that follows trauma [1][2].