Guards throwing dice in the Crucifixion, gambling in Bosch’s vision of Hell, in a dingy tavern, losing an entire estate, and being played by young street urchins.
Anker
How conflicting ambitions took Napoleon III to war against Prussia when France was so ill-prepared. Defeat was inevitable, and soon Paris was under siege.
Led by progressive administrations in the French Republic and Scotland, secular classes improved discipline and improved their pupils.
Gambling among soldiers and young boys, games of Pharo, l’hombre, poker, and the Casino at Monte-Carlo.
Mountain huts, refuges, and inns by Calame, Hodler. Rosa Bonheur and others, with a couple of photos of truly awe-inspiring huts in the Alps.
Spinning natural fibres like wool into yarn was “women’s work” and had several connotations, here explored in paintings, and the origin of the word ‘spinster’.
Paintings showing women spinning from around 1000 CE to the early 20th century, by Eakins, Tanner, Courbet, van Gogh, Breton, and others,
In the late 19th century, painting was centred on Paris. But in 1870-71, the city was all but destroyed after a long siege, in the Franco-Prussian War. The story told in paintings.
Dramatic changes in the classrooms of the late 19th century, as education became politicised and paintings resembled photos.
The late 19th century took gambling upmarket into glitzy casinos. Seen in paintings by Courbet, Rossetti, Félix Vallotton, and others.
The Eclectic Light Company 