Historic Painting: “Prussian Troops with French Prisoners” by Christian Sell, 1875.
This picture romanticizes the brief but pivotal conflict between Prussia and France, which upended European politics.
Much of the U.S. is suffering from cold and wintry weather this week. It’s not so bad where I am but I’m still bundled up in a blanket while writing this—perhaps why this fairly obscure painting from the 1870s struck my eye. Its official title is Preussische Truppen mit französischen Kriegsgefangenen (“Prussian Troops with French Prisoners of War”), and it depicts a scene from the winter of 1870-71 during the Franco-Prussian War. The Prussian troops are in blue, escorting French prisoners, perhaps from the recent fall of Paris. This conflict, though it only lasted a few months, was quite pivotal in the history of Europe and the world. It resulted ultimately in the final political unification of Germany, which was proclaimed at Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors in January 1871, an act that upended European politics and eventually set the stage for the world wars of the 20th century. But at the time, the conflict between France and Prussia was seen as the kind of semi-romantic war that lent itself so well to these sorts of idealized scenes that were popular among artists in the late 19th century.
