After the Battle, by Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898). Engraving in black ink on paper. 12 x 17 1/4 inches (30.2 x 43.7 cm) – Sheet size. 7 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches (18.7 x 24.1 cm) – image size. Private collection. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This is an engraving by Frederick Augustus Heath published by Virtue & Co. in The Art Journal in July 1867 opposite page 164. Philip Calderon's After the Battle had appeared in the Royal Academy exhibition in 1862, no. 243, accompanied in the catalogue by this line from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Act 5, scene 5: "Men ne'er spend their fury on a child." The engraving shows a group of soldiers, whose uniform show them to be from the time of George II, entering a cottage in either France or Flanders that has been damaged during a battle. They encounter a frightened young boy who was evidently inadvertently left behind when the other occupants fled in haste to escape the destruction. The child is seated on an upturned wicker cradle in which he may have hidden during the battle. A young drummer boy stares at the child while the foremost soldier stoops to talk to him. The standing soldier between these two is carrying a brass lamp as other soldiers behind this group look on. It is quite obvious that, whatever the future fate of the forsaken child is, he will meet with nothing but kindness from the soldiers into whose hands he has fallen. A burning building with smoke arising from it can be seen through the window.
Bibliography
"Selected Pictures. After the Battle," The Art Journal New Series VI (July 1867): 164.
Created 19 July 2023