User blog:JonathanMarkoff/Visual arts references in Turtledove's Work

Like many authors, Harry Turtledove references the broad impact which painting, drawing, sculpture, and their creators have had on society. Sometimes, these references can give a reader insight into how a particular timeline differs from OTL. Other times, they are more incidental and designed to invoke a specific era or culture. What follows is a list of such references which can be found in Turtledove's body of work, organized by the artist.

Note: As many homages are subtle, they can easily escape the notice of any given reader. Therefore we strongly encourage anyone who has found, or believes he has found, an homage not already on this list, or by an author not represented, to add it.

Gobelin
Gobelin was the name of a French family of dyers, who in the middle of the 15th century established themselves in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, Paris, on the banks of the Bièvre. The family's wealth increased so rapidly that in the third or fourth generation some of them forsook their trade and purchased titles of nobility. In 1662, the Gobelin dye factory was purchased by Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert on behalf of King Louis XIV, and transformed into a general upholstery manufactory, the Gobelins Manufactory. The Gobelins appear to have left the dye trade entirely by 1700.

In In the Presence of Mine Enemies, an authentic 17th-century Gobelin piece adorns the office quarters of the Führer's Palace in Berlin in the 21st century.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 11, 1834 – July 17, 1903) was an American artist, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail. The symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality: his art is characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. He found a parallel between painting and music and titled many of his works as "arrangements", "harmonies", and "nocturnes", emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony. His most famous painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly known as Whistler's Mother, the revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood. Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers

In The Two Georges, Whistler was an important painter in North American Union history, well-known enough that even Thomas Bushell, who has little interest in art, can make an off-the-cuff metaphor about him.