Revisionist History PDF

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Response to Elizabeth Thompson's "Roll Call," and Malcolm Gladwell's "Revisionist History."...

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Elizabeth Thompson Response In Elizabeth Thompson’s piece, Roll Call, Thompson depicts a brigade of soldiers lined up for roll call by their commanding officer, following a significant battle of the Crimean War. Through the use of slightly monochromatic, dark colors, Thompson captures the frigidity of the weather and low morale of the soldiers. The feeling of unity among the war-torn soldiers is brought about by Thompson’s use of spacing in the piece. She painted the piece in a very balanced way; the soldiers are situated side-by-side and the eye is not drawn to any singular figure. As stated in the article, this was a way for her to highlight the role of the common soldier. Although the painting was widely celebrated throughout England because of the sheer significance of the battle it follows, I believe Thompson attempted to encapsulate the consequences of war. Although the battle was won, every soldier in the piece looks defeated. I think it could be deduced that the piece was Thompson’s denouncement of war.

Malcolm Gladwell: Revisionist History In his podcast, Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell hosts an episode entitled, “The Lady Vanishes,” in which he goes into the story behind the widely famous piece Roll Call by Elizabeth Thompson. Without talking entirely too much on the content of the painting, Gladwell offers a fascinating backstory into the unfriendly relationship between Thompson and the Royal Academy. Although my interpretation of the painting has not changed much as a result of the podcast, it has changed my view of Elizabeth Thompson and the praise that surrounded her piece. The overarching theme of the podcast centers on what Gladwell calls “moral licensing.” He defines this as the entitlement to compensation that a socially closed group feels for performing a good deed through allowing an outsider into their network. A woman from Switzerland with no publicized artistic credibility, Elizabeth Thompson was an outsider from the get-go. For this reason, the entirety of England was overwhelmed when the Royal Academy – a patriarchy of 40 men - elected to hang her painting on the line in the most prestigious gallery. Even more so, she narrowly missed being inducted into the Academy by 2 votes. Gladwell goes on to explain how this seemingly progressive action by the Academy, or any closed group for that matter, opens a window for them to exclude more people due to moral licensing, making it difficult for other outsiders to be recognized. However, it is important to study these sort of outsiders because it gives us a look into multiple viewpoints of subjective experience. If we were to only study what the Academy – or any other biased organization – considers worthy, than we would become as closed-minded as them....