Ramnant (After Jacques-Louis David's Les Derniers moments de Michel Lepeletier 1793), oil and acrylic on canvas, 28x34 inches.
Ramnant (After Gerhard Richter's Hitler from 1962), oil on canvas, 28x34 inches.
The two paintings I am calling Remnant's, are based on two other paintings destroyed for simple seemingly upfront political reasons. Richter's painting was destroyed by his own hand after showing Hitler in a gallery show in Germany in the early 60's, and David's Le Peletier Assassinated was destroyed by Le Peletier's royalist daughter (he was a republican martyr during the revolution) after the French revolution failed, which is known only by a drawing, an engraving, and contemporary accounts.
I find the censure of both paintings fascinating, one by the artist, and the other by the subjects family reaching the same present day result. That result being the paintings physical destruction, but not the images death.
I based my paintings off reproductions that remain of the originals, bad photographs and riped engravings. I still like the idea of remaking old lost "problem" paintings, but have run out of ideas of other lost ones to make. If anyone looking at this has a suggestion of a painting, please leave it in the comments for this post. Thanks in advance.
