Martial paintings have a tendency to be inspiring or patriotic but there is some fine art here. It certainly depicts the grim realities of war. Hitler and Stalin both went to considerable lengths to "control" art for nationalistic purposes and Hitler, a very second rate painter thought Impressionism, Expressionism, etc. was unworthy and even decadent at times and promoted a neo Neo-Classicistic style that supported visions of the Third Reich and Albert Speer's vision of it. It is interesting that much French art was looted by the Nazis and the Russians did the same to the Nazis. Germany is trying to retrieve works from Russian at present just as the Greeks and Egyptians are trying to get back the Elgin Marbles and obelisk from all over Europe. Art and war is a most interesting subject and this is, to be, a significant post. Much appreciated. Some very compelling work. I was born in 1940 and some of my earliest memories are looking at American war artist published in Life and The Saturday Evening Post. GB
Just to add there's a very small, almost missable link to page 2 of these paintings at the top left of the first page and at the very bottom. Good points GB, yes the Soviets liked to control artists and their output to a very fine degree. To me that's what makes some of these paintings even more remarkable, a few appear to simply be paintings by free artists and almost mundane in their choice of subject.
