Comments on: War and Its Aftermath

By: Scott M. Haskins

Scott M. Haskins — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:21:31 +0000

Nice choice with the Wendt. What a beautiful, poetic representation! I think LACMA has two Wendts that about the same size aren’t they? Its interesting to see them hung side by side. Despite the similar period, color saturation and palette, they have a significantly different “glow”… and impact about them. The difference seemed, to me, to be due to one being properly cleaned and the other seemed much less clean. It sure made a difference in the readability and presentation.

At the blog http://www.tipsforfineartcollectors.org, issues of cleaning are often discussed.

By: Austen

Austen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:19:59 +0000

Thanks for your query. You’re right that the flag is not that of Czechoslovakia; the design for the newly independent nation was not then finalized but the flag Luks depicted was the flag carried by the Czechs in the October 1918 parade. As art historians Ilene Susan Fort and Michael Quick have noted, “Although the red-andwhite striped flag Luks delineated in the museum’s painting is not the design eventually selected for the national flag, it is the one depicted by Henry Rittenberg (1879-1969) in his painting of the Czech army that was carried down Fifth Avenue during the celebrations in October 1918.” If you click on the Luks painting above you will get to the essay on the painting in LACMA’s Collections Online.

By: aya

aya — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:32:47 +0000

thanks for this post. but a question – why does this caption mention Czechoslovakia “George Benjamin Luks, Czechoslovakian Army Entering Vladivostok, Siberia, in 1918, 1918″ when the flags in the painting are Polish flags? At that time Poland had been under occupation for more than a century, and only with the conclusion of WWI was Poland once more independent. But that doesn’t fully answer my question. Thoughts?