And When Did You Last See Your Father?

Описание: And When Did You Last See Your Father?
William Frederick Yeames, 1878
Oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Yeames stages a scene set during the English Civil War: a Royalist household captured by Parliamentarian forces. At its center, a boy is interrogated about his father’s whereabouts. Behind him, his sister weeps, their mother and siblings watch in anguish, while the stern officers press for answers.

Though fictional, the painting embodies the moral dilemmas of war: the conflict between truth and loyalty, honesty and survival. The boy’s silence could condemn him as guilty; his words could betray his father.

Yeames leaves us with a haunting question: what should a child do when truth itself could destroy his family?

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