Conversations about guns and politics (Veterans)

Jean-François Raffaelli • Painting, 1884, 56.8×39.9 cm
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About the artwork
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Genre scene
Style of art: Realism
Technique: Oil
Materials: Wood
Date of creation: 1884
Size: 56.8×39.9 cm
Artwork in selections: 3 selections

Description of the artwork «Conversations about guns and politics (Veterans)»

The exact date of the creation of this work is unknown, but the biographer Rafaelli reported that some of his paintings were exhibited in 1884 under the name "Talk about guns and politics"and agrees that, with the highest probability – this is also known as "Veterans". Three elderly gents in the hat is discussed at the bench, "past days and the battle," the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, which left its mark on each. Back to us is preserving the military bearing of a man who has a hard time walking – talk about it and his posture, and supports lower back hand, and a cane which are drawn crossed with a cane sitting him downcast counterpart in the glasses. The figure and face their third companion, which is partially obscured, but it is clear that the opinion of all three in the cross hairs of some common point of discussion, something that is between them, as if front of chest sitting men.

The focus of the picture – somewhere out there, in front of his heart, on the steep curve of the arc, whose upper edge is marked by the shoulder line and the lower edges of the black robes, and enhanced with hints of light spots: legs tipped cane sitting, his large fingers and handle of this cane. Any specific things with no focus, raffaëlli still tagged this pressure point picture, and at the same time the pressure point of the conversation of her characters, a red ribbon on the lapel of a veteran – the only beacon of color among moderate and heavy tones.

About this trio of veterans is reminiscent of a later and much darker, despite the optimistic title, the work of raffaëlli "Older recovering". Again the three on the bench – this time in a dull hospital yard, a little further away walks another man with a bandaged head, and go to the left, going to hide behind the building, two nurses in white hoods, too, as though wounded in the head. They are painted from the back, the lone patient in three quarters, and the three in the foreground one looks at us, the other to the left, following the nuns, and the third with the height of its growth somewhere beyond the left margin of the picture. Here, in contrast to the trio engaged in conversations about guns and politics, – all silent, and each by itself, although United by their common fate.

Author: Maria Kropacheva
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