1337–1453
The Hundred Years' War & Joan of Arc
From 1337 to 1453 England and France fought on and off in the Hundred Years' War. English archers won at Crécy and Agincourt, but a teenage peasant girl named Joan of Arc rallied the French and helped crown King Charles VII. By the end, England had lost almost all of its French lands.
Why artists painted it
Joan of Arc became a saint and a national hero, so painters of the 1800s showed her as everything from a quiet farm girl hearing voices to a shining warrior on horseback.
Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans · Eugène Lenepveu, 1890
Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans
Eugène Lenepveu · 1890
🕰️ Painted about 440 years later
Joan of Arc, a teenage peasant girl who said saints told her to save France, rides into battle with her banner to lift the siege of Orléans in 1429.
Joan of Arc, Victorious over the English, Enters Orléans
Jean-Jacques Scherrer · 1887
🕰️ Painted about 430 years later
On May 8, 1429 Joan of Arc rides into Orléans as a hero after the English siege is broken, and the crowd cheers her.
Joan of Arc
Eugène Romain Thirion · 1876
🕰️ Painted about 420 years later
Eugène Thirion shows Joan of Arc, in a simple red dress, listening to the angels and saints whose voices, she said, told her to save France.
The Trial of Joan of Arc
Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel · 1896
🕰️ Painted about 440 years later
Joan of Arc stands before her judges at her trial in 1431, after she was captured by the English allies.
The Siege of Orléans
Anonymous illuminator (Vigiles de Charles VII) · 1484
🕰️ Painted 31 years later
A walled city is attacked with cannons and ladders in this illuminated manuscript showing the siege of Orléans in 1428–1429, the turning point of the Hundred Years' War.
Morning of the Battle of Agincourt, 25th October 1415
John Gilbert · 1884
🕰️ Painted about 430 years later
King Henry V of England, with a small tired army, waits for the French on the morning of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
The Battle of Agincourt (St Albans Chronicle)
Anonymous illuminator (St Albans Chronicle) · 1422
👁️ Painted at the time
This medieval chronicle picture of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 was painted only a few years after the battle itself, in the chronicle of the monk Thomas Walsingham.
The Black Prince at Crécy
Julian Russell Story · 1888
🕰️ Painted about 440 years later
The sixteen-year-old Edward, called the Black Prince, stands among the dead after the Battle of Crécy in 1346, where English archers beat the French.
The Battle of Poitiers
Eugène Delacroix · 1830
🕰️ Painted about 380 years later
At Poitiers in 1356 the English army led by the Black Prince defeated the French and captured their king, John II.
Edward III with the Black Prince after the Battle of Crécy
Benjamin West · 1788
🕰️ Painted about 340 years later
King Edward III embraces his young son the Black Prince after the Battle of Crécy in 1346, proud of his first big victory.
Edward the Black Prince Receiving King John of France after Poitiers
Benjamin West · 1788
🕰️ Painted about 340 years later
After winning at Poitiers, the Black Prince treats the captured French king John with great courtesy.
The Battle of Crécy (Froissart's Chronicles)
Loyset Liédet · 1470
👁️ Painted at the time
English longbowmen face French knights and crossbowmen in a colorful scene from the chronicles of Jean Froissart, the great historian of the Hundred Years' War.