The hostages

The Hostages is an oil on canvas painted in 1896 by Jean-Paul Laurens, a French painter and sculptor. It is generally regarded as the last of his series of historical works, although the picture does not place its scene at any specific moment in the past. This lack of precision appears to be intentional: the artist alludes obliquely to the Princes in the Tower and to Richard III of England, figures linked to confinement and to the threat facing children who hold or stand near power. The painting therefore works less as a record of a particular event than as a reflection on the vulnerability of those left at the mercy of others. It now belongs to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, where it can be seen as a late example of the history painting practised in France at the close of the nineteenth century.

Painter

Jean-Paul Laurens

Date

1896

Museum

Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, Lyon

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