A Battle
- Artist: Jan van Huchtenburgh
- Date: about 1680
- Medium: oil on canvas, mounted on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "A Battle" painted by Jan van Huchtenburgh. A specialist painter of battle scenes, he's created a dynamic scene that draws the viewer in. Look at how he's used depth to create a sense of movement - the bodies of two soldiers and a horse lie dead or wounded in the foreground, with four horsemen engaging in close combat just behind them.
The smoke from the pistols suggests that more casualties are about to occur, adding to the sense of tension and chaos. On the right, you see a line of infantrymen charging with their pikes raised, while on the left, another skirmish is taking place, along with two retreating horsemen leading the eye back to a village burning in the distance.
It's interesting to note that this scene doesn't appear to represent a specific battle, but rather belongs to a category of paintings based on the French campaigns in the Netherlands during the 1670s.
See it in person
A Battle hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
