Death of General Wolfe vs. George Washington Crossing the Delaware

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Comparing and contrasting ‘The Death of General Wolfe’ & ‘George Washington Crossing the Delaware’ The Death of General Wolfe painted in the year 1770 by Benjamin West depicting the death of British General James Wolfe during the 1759 Battle of Quebec of the Seven Years’ War, the painting is oil on canvas. George Washington Crossing the Delaware painted in the year 1851 by Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze depicts the brave action taken by Washington to defeat the English; this painting as well is oil on canvas. Both paintings are of heroism, idealism and bravery. In both pictures the men are the point of focus though they are positioned differently, in the painting of Washington, he is positioned more to the left side, but just by viewing you would still know he is the centre of attraction because of the way he is poised and it is also said that the human eye will read anything from the left because that’s just the way things are. Though in the second painting, that of James Wolfe, although he’s on the floor and probably at the verge of death, he is placed in the middle so as you look at the painting you would know it is all about the General. But who are these men? They must be great men in history, George Washington was the first president of America and General Wolfe was a British Army Officer who led Britain to the victory over the French in Canada. So they were both heroes to plenty people. The paintings are quite similar I must say, they both have a high sense of war which I much clearer on General Wolfe’s side because of the whole war scene, in this there are soldiers everywhere probably still at war you can see that in the aerial perspective, but the war scene is quite different in the other painting, its more of the war is about to happen not in process. I noticed, in both scenes there is a flag and a flag holder right next to the heroes showing they are

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