The miseries of war

Louis Haghe was born in Belgium and trained there as a painter and lithographer. He moved to London in 1832, where he operated a print publishing firm. He was also a founding member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1832 and served as its president from 1873 to 1884. This watercolour seems to illustrate a fictive event woven around the backdrop of almost continual warfare in the Spanish-ruled Southern Netherlands during the 17th century, when Flemish towns were frequently besieged by foreign armies fighting the Spanish. When it was first exhibited, it was accompanied by a quote chosen by Haghe from Shakespeare’s 'Henry VI, part 2': ‘O War, thou son of Hell / Whom angry heavens do make their minister / Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part / Hot coals of vengeance!’