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''The Black Brunswicker'' (1860) is a painting by John Everett Millais. It was inspired in part by the exploits of the Black Brunswickers, a German volunteer corps of the Napoleonic Wars, during the Waterloo campaign and in part by the contrasts of black broadcloth and pearl-white satin in a moment of tender conflict. The painting was originally exhibited with the plural title ''The Black Brunswickers'', but is most commonly known by the singular form of the title.〔Mary Bennett, ''Artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Circle: The First Generation'', Catalogue of Works at the Walker Art Gallery, Lady Lever Gallery and Sudley Art Gallery, National Museums and Galleries, Merseyside, Lund Humphries, pp.144–149.〕 ==Subject== The painting depicts a Brunswicker about to depart for battle. His sweetheart, wearing a ballgown, restrains him, trying to push the door closed, while he pulls it open. This suggests that the scene is inspired by the Duchess of Richmond's ball on 15 June 1815, from which the officers departed to join troops at the Battle of Quatre Bras.〔 In a letter to his wife, Effie Gray, Millais described his inspiration for the work, referring to a conversation with William Howard Russell, the war correspondent of ''The Times'': The same letter states that he intends it to be "a perfect pendant to ''The Huguenot''", Millais's first major success, which portrays a similar scene featuring two lovers gazing at each other longingly. Originally Millais intended the two paintings to be even more similar than they are by repeating the motif of the armband used in the earlier painting. He wanted the soldier to be wearing a black crepe mourning armband, with "the sweetheart of the young soldier sewing it around his arm".〔 The armband idea was quickly dropped as it does not appear in any extant preparatory drawings. Millais reduced the presence of Napoleon to an engraving after Jacques-Louis David's ''Napoleon Crossing the Alps'', which is framed on the damask-hung wall, and which "perplexed the critics with the possible intricacies of cross purposes and rival jealousies" according to the reviewer from ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine''.〔 This refers to the fact that some critics took the print to imply that the female character was an admirer of Napoleon, and so she was trying to prevent her lover from joining the army for both personal and political reasons. As the critic of ''The Times'' surmised, "her reluctance is due in part to a romantic admiration for this great conquerer."〔 Other critics suggest the print was intended to allude to both the Waterloo campaign and to more recent events, particularly Napoleon III's repetition of his predecessor's crossing of the Alps by his attack on Austrian-controlled Lombardy in 1859.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=‘The Black Brunswicker’ 1860 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Black Brunswicker (Millais)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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