Page "Elizabeth Thompson" Paragraph 3

Initially she concentrated on religious subjects like The Magnificat ( 1872 ), but upon going to Paris in 1870 she was exposed to battle scenes from Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier and Édouard Detaille, and switched her focus to war paintings.

With the painting Missing ( 1873 ) a Franco-Prussian War battle scene, depicting the common soldiers ' suffering and heroism, she earned her first submission to the Royal Academy.

After The Roll Call was shown in 1874 at the Academy, she became a nineteenth century celebrity, due to the paintings ' immense popularity.

As the paintings toured Europe, along with photographs of Elizabeth, she gained even more notice because people found out that she was both young and pretty, something normally not associated with painters of battle scenes.

It also helped that during this time there was an incredible amount of Victorian pride and romanticism for the growing British Empire.