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| Le Nain Brothers Allegory of Victory ca. 1635 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Simon Renard de Saint André Vanitas Still Life ca. 1650 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon |
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| Laurent de La Hyre Allegory of Experience ca. 1650 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Nicolas Régnier Allegory of Fortitude before 1667 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Egidio Martini, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice |
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| Gérard de Lairesse Allegory of the Senses 1668 oil on canvas Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
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| Antoine Coypel Flora and Zephyr (Allegory of Spring) 1699 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Michel-François Dandré-Bardon Allegory of the Peace of Vienna 1737 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille |
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| attributed to François Boucher Allegory of Painting before 1770 oil on canvas (sketch) Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
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| Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée Mars and Venus (Allegory of Peace) 1770 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Jean-Jacques Lagrenée Allegory on the Opening of the Museum 1783 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Jules-Joseph Lefebvre Personification of Truth 1870 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Paul Cézanne L'Éternel Féminin ca. 1877 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Guillaume Dubufe Bozzetto for Foyer Ceiling of the Comédie Française with Allegorical Figures 1885 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Ker-Xavier Roussel The Seasons of Life 1892-93 oil on panel Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| William-Adolphe Bouguereau Dream of Spring 1901 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
Smile, Smile, Smile
Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned
Yesterday's Mail; the casualties (typed small)
And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul.
Also, they read of Cheap Homes, not yet planned;
"For," said the paper, "when this war is done
The men's first instinct will be making homes.
Meanwhile their foremost need is aerodromes,
It being certain war has just begun.
Peace would do wrong to our undying dead, –
The sons we offered might regret they died
If we got nothing lasting in their stead.
We must be solidly indemnified.
Though all be worthy Victory which all bought,
We rulers sitting in this ancient spot
Would wrong our very selves if we forgot
The greatest glory will be theirs who fought,
Who kept this nation in integrity."
Nation? – The half-limbed readers did not chafe
But smiled at one another curiously
Like secret men who know their secret safe.
(This is the thing they know and never speak,
That England one by one had fled to France
Not many elsewhere now save under France).
Pictures of these broad smiles appear each week,
And people in whose voice real feeling rings
Say: How they smile! They're happy now, poor things.
– Wilfred Owen (1917-18)