Hillsdale College Podcast: “American Paintings: Battle Scenes”

Podcast: Hillsdale College Podcast Network
Host: Jeremiah Regan
Guest/Lecturer: Professor Emeritus Sam Knecht
Episode Release: November 19, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network’s online course series provides the concluding lecture from “American Paintings,” focusing on battle scenes and military art. Professor Emeritus of Art Sam Knecht discusses the evolution of American battle painting from the Revolution through today, exploring how artists have depicted war’s realities, heroism, and aftermath. The lecture guides listeners through a rich visual history, highlighting American art’s narrative power and emotional resonance, and underscoring the continued relevance and impact of military art traditions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Art as Universal, Not “Highbrow” (00:34)

• Art and Accessibility: The episode opens with a reflection on art’s place beyond elitism, as Jeremiah notes that “battle scenes… are not often regarded as highbrow art.” Sam Knecht confirms, “You can't talk about American history and American culture without dealing with the history of war and the struggles of the military…” (00:57)
• Historical Documentation: Military painting intertwines with the story of the nation, making these works essential to understanding American culture.

2. The Painter’s Role as Storyteller (02:24)

• Narrative Techniques: Knecht emphasizes the painter’s narrative power: “So much of what we encounter… is narrative, telling the story, really trying to communicate to the viewer: you are there, you're an eyewitness…” (02:24)
• Selective Portrayal vs. Photography: Painters can be both precise and selective—choosing what not to show, thus heightening drama, focus, or symbolism, unlike the fleeting, literal capture of a photograph (04:41).

3. Revolutionary War – John Trumbull’s “Battle of Bunker Hill” (09:44)

• Eyewitness Accounts and Factual Authority: Knecht explains that Trumbull was “actually an eyewitness to this battle… he watched it through binoculars from a distance…” (09:44)
• Compositional Drama: The painting is analyzed for its “surging diagonals… a big central movement here of dark tones… echoed in the movement of these clouds… smart artists know that if you want to create movement, you use diagonals, and that’s certainly true here.” (13:00)
• Human Cost: Detailed focus on Dr. Joseph Warren’s death and how Trumbull “did his diligent research to get the facts right in this painting.” (15:12)

4. Civil War – Winslow Homer’s “Prisoners from the Front” & “Veteran in a New Field” (16:05)

• Eyewitness Reporting: Homer’s role as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly is discussed; he “was an eyewitness to the Civil War battlefront…” (06:40)
• Psychological Insight: “Homer did something extremely clever… the horizon line cuts just above each of the men’s shoulders… your eyes… are riveted on the faces of those men and what their condition is expressing.” (06:40)
• Allegorical Devices: The arrangement of prisoners alludes to the ages of man—“the youth or prematurity… post maturity, and… maturity.” (19:00)
• Symbolism of Healing: “Veteran in a New Field” explores postwar life; the scythe is “a replacement now for a sword… could remind you of the biblical passage that swords should be beaten into plowshares.” (22:00)

5. World War I – Samuel Johnson Wolf’s Battlefield Painting (24:00)

• From Portraiture to War Journalism: Wolf, a former society painter, immersed himself as a combat artist, sometimes “had to put down his sketch pad and attend to things that were much more important, like helping the wounded…” (27:00)
• Design for Drama: Attention to figure triangles, the use of smoke and “poison gas” to convey chaos—“as they get smaller… merging into the depths of the clouds, they become harder to read…” (29:00)

6. World War I – John Singer Sargent’s “Gassed” (32:58)

• Pathos and Scale: Sargent’s monumental painting is described as “especially full of pathos and remembrance and of dread… a kind of sorrowful frieze of figures that march almost blindly from left to right…” (32:58)
• Emotional Resonance: “You can’t help but be moved,” says Knecht, highlighting the emotional impact of Sargent’s work.

7. World War II – Official Art and Home Front (35:00)

• Government-Sanctioned Art: Paintings such as recruitment posters and depictions of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) reflect “duty, loyalty and service that is memorable.” (37:00)
• Design Choices: Poster-like silhouettes, strong contrasts, and details like “no background here, no landscape, no houses… the message is front and center” (36:00).

8. World War II – Griffith Bailey Cole’s “Sinking Sun” (40:00)

• Symbolism and Optimism: The painting references Japanese defeat and American hope, with the sunset symbolizing the “final defeat hoped for in this part of the war.” (41:00)
• Initiative for Official Combat Art: Cole helped start the Navy’s official combat art collection.

9. Vietnam War – Robert L. Bennie’s “Vietnam Episode: First Core Area” (45:00)

• Contemporary Chaos: Thick, “messy” paint dramatizes war’s turmoil: “It’s cliché to say that war is messy, but here he has dramatized the action… There’s nothing pretty about this.” (47:00)

10. Afghanistan – Elsie Ray Golden’s “Hazara Province” (49:00)

• Modern Perspective: Focus shifts to aftermath and daily experience rather than combat—soldiers “invite us to put ourselves in their place. To enter this scene…” (50:00)
• Art as Empathy: “It’s as if these artists want to help us put ourselves in their shoes, or their combat boots for that matter, and see these scenes firsthand…” (51:00)

11. The Value and Mission of Military Art (52:30)

• Legacy and Commemoration: Knecht reflects, “These paintings… invite us to enter in, to go shoulder to shoulder with the people depicted, or to gaze out on the vast stretches of the land… All of this rolled together becomes a part of our American experience, our American heritage.” (52:50)
• Artistic Honesty: “I think that the combat artists… are to be commended for their attention to truth… attentive to facts… But perhaps more importantly… to convey a feeling of the emotions of being in the military.” (52:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Selectivity of Painting:
  “The painter has the opportunity… to rearrange, to do studies, and to kind of rearrange the, the players on the chessboard until he gets it right so that the meaning and the intent… will be fundamentally clear.”
  — Sam Knecht (05:12)

• On Emotional Impact:
  “Your eyes… are riveted on the faces of those men and what their condition is expressing.”
  — Sam Knecht, on Homer’s “Prisoners from the Front” (06:40)

• On the Symbolism in “Veteran in a New Field”:
  “The scythe is a replacement now for a sword… it could remind you of the biblical passage that swords should be beaten into plowshares.”
  — Sam Knecht (22:00)

• On Modern Military Art:
  “It’s as if these artists want to help us put ourselves in their shoes, or their combat boots for that matter, and see these scenes firsthand…”
  — Sam Knecht (51:00)

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Introduction; battle scenes as democratic/accessible art | | 02:24 | Narrative power & selectivity of painting over photography | | 09:44 | Trumbull’s “Battle of Bunker Hill”—composition, history, symbolism | | 16:05 | Winslow Homer—Civil War illustrations, “Prisoners from the Front,” and “Veteran in a New Field” | | 24:00 | Samuel Johnson Wolf’s WWI paintings—combat realism and design | | 32:58 | John Singer Sargent’s “Gassed”—the pathos & horror of war | | 35:00 | WWII home front art; WAVES and the visual messaging of patriotism | | 40:00 | Griffith Bailey Cole’s “Sinking Sun”—symbolism and military optimism | | 45:00 | Robert L. Bennie’s “Vietnam Episode”—emphasizing the chaos | | 49:00 | Elsie Ray Golden’s Afghanistan painting—post-combat reflection | | 52:30 | Conclusion—military art’s role in heritage, empathy, and memory |

Conclusion

Sam Knecht’s concluding lecture on American battle scenes traces both a chronology and a psychological landscape, guiding listeners from the American Revolution’s idealism and sacrifice through the trauma and complexity of modern conflicts. With a discerning eye, Knecht highlights painters’ unique capacity to distill emotional truths from chaos—faithfully recording facts while powerfully engaging the viewer’s empathy.

He leaves listeners with a sense of legacy and purpose: military art is not just documentation or wall decoration, but an honest, multifaceted invitation to understand, remember, and honor the American experience and the individuals who shaped it.

For visual references and further exploration, listeners are invited to enroll in Hillsdale’s free American Paintings course.