Powder explosion in the middle of a troop detachment, 1780

About the Work

Dirk Langendijk’s “Explosion”, which sends soldiers, horses and wagons flying in all directions, does not depict a specific historical event. The artist specialized in drawings of “military scenes” such as this one. Their popularity can be understood against the background of the conflicts that flared up in the Netherlands in the late eighteenth century – first a war with England, then domestic tensions between republicans and the absolutist- minded Netherlandish stadtholder, and later the French occupation that came in the wake of the French Revolution.