The Eternal Flame Trivia Quiz

Answer: Frederic Remington

Frederic Remington's forte was the American Old West, and he produced a large body of work filled with images of American Indians, cowboys and the US Cavalry. Using a naturalistic style, he is viewed as the most successful proponent of western genre art during its "Golden Age" - the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth centuries. This, to the point that other prominent artists who came through this era, such as Charles Russell and Charles Schreyvogel, were dubbed "the school of Remington".

"The Grass Fire" is an oil on canvas work that features an Indian war party, using the night as cover, setting fire to the grassland of another tribe. Their intent here is to either destroy that tribe's hunting ground or use the blaze as a means to attack their rival's camp. In the painting the night is pitch black. There are no stars or moon visible to provide illumination, only the crimson glow of the fire. This, then, serves to highlight the drama within the picture by putting an emphasis on the Indian's stealth.

(Notes) Remington is the name of a prominent firearms manufacturer. An atlatl is a spear-throwing device, a trireme a warship and a gladius is a sword.

This question was set alight by Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.

Answer: Elephants

Kuhnert was a painter of truly life-like animals from across the world, and was active from around the start of the 20th century. Apart from elephants, Kuhnert also depicted lions and antelope fleeing before fire. Beyond this, he painted animals stalking and killing prey, bears in Scotland and the platypus and kangaroo from Australia. His paintings became so popular that prints were used as trading cards by chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck.

This question was fanned by Phoenix Rising member, VegemiteKid.

Answer: Watermedia

Tonja Opperman has a degree in forestry, but moved into wildfire management early on. Her job involves fire science, focusing specifically on the spread of fires and predicting their behavior from one day to several weeks out. She has held positions "in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana, in Christchurch New Zealand, and Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming." (Quote courtesy Fineartamerica.com profile.)

Her work has given her a unique insight into the world of fire and she has turned to watermedia to express her passion for the subject. She uses "pure watercolor, gouache, acrylic, or a combination." According to her, "I know that fire can indeed be destructive, but in the natural environment, fire means renewal, regrowth, and a diverse landscape patchwork." (Quotes courtesy Fineartamerica.com profile.)

This question was ignited by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Peasant

The "peasant" genre was one of the major categories highlighting the Realism movement that was prominent in 1850s France. One of the key contributors to that genre was Jean-Francois Millet, who was keen to showcase peasants as working-class heroes and, in doing so, became a major influence on Vincent Van Gogh. From 1882 Van Gogh began to pour his own energies into raising the standard of the peasant workers in their own environment. He was moved by their stoicism and their ability to endure hardships and harsh conditions for long periods of time.

Whilst "The Potato Eaters" (1885) is probably Van Gogh's most famous work from this period, the artist held a fondness for "Peasant Burning Weeds". This is an oil on panel work and, in a letter to Theo (Van Gogh) he explains "I'm still working on that weed burner, whom I've caught better than before in a painted study as far as the tone is concerned, so that it conveys more of the vastness of the plain and the gathering dusk, and the small fire with the wisp of smoke is the only point of light."

This question was kindled by Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.

Answer: Forest Fire

"Forest Fire" is a dramatic piece of art which is considered an archetype of wildfire paintings. It is stunning because of the painting technique and the accuracy and vibrancy of the colour palette. The artist, Denisov-Uralsky, did many versions of "Forest Fire". The original one, dated 1897, is a vertical piece with a sunlit, unscathed pine tree in the foregound while burning trees are in the back. There is a thick plume of smoke rising towards the left while a small patch of blue sky, symbolising hope, is visible in the top right corner. In later versions, Denisov-Uralsky reverted to the horizontal format and altered the forest, the trees in the foreground, or the viewpoint slightly. He also changed mediums, using oil or watercolour in his reproductions. "Forest Fire" was one of the Russian artworks displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It was also re-printed as postcards and widely circulated. In fact, some reproductions of "Forest Fire" and various interpretations of wildfires done by other artists may have been based on these postcards.

This question was painted by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: False

Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) is best known for his ability to capture the Australian landscape on canvas. His extraordinary gift of being able to express the intensity of the sunlight and the starkness of the heat that hammer this country have made his impressions of the Australian landscape some of the most evocative across the globe.

"Fire's On", which is a warning yelled out by workers just prior to the detonation of an explosive, captures the death of a worker during the construction of a railway tunnel through the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney. Despite the high drama unfolding here, Streeton still manages to make the landscape the hero in this piece, with the towering Blue Mountains threatening to reduce the trials of man to insignificance.

This question was caused to explode onto the page by Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.

Answer: The Great Gippsland Fire of 1898

There are two familiar sights in areas that have been affected by bushfire: a chimney standing by itself in a paddock, the only reminder of a former dwelling; and the blackened trunks of gum trees sprouting with new life. Bushfires in Australia are a regular occurrence. In fact, fire was used regularly by the first inhabitants to both manage the scrub and allow the seeds of particular flora to germinate.

Although fire is a regular occurrence across the country, of the listed options only Gippsland is in Victoria.

A thread can be found amongst the works of Australian artists that tells of the terror and threat of bushfire and the devastation it causes. A number of prominent Australian artists, including James A Turner and John Longstaff, were eye-witnesses to the Great Gippsland Fire of 1898 and recorded it in their works. A newspaper of the time reports the extent and tragic effects of the fire, which consumed much of the nearly 45,000 square km region.

This questions was sparked by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: The Great Peshtigo Fire

On October 8, 1871 a massive forest fire engulfed the area around the lumber community of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, the same day that Chicago suffered its famous fire. The firestorm was fanned by the strong winds from a cold front moving through the area consuming 1,875 square miles and twelve communities. It was the deadliest forest fire up to that point in American history, with estimated deaths ranging from 1,500 to 2,500.

At the same time that the Peshtigo and Chicago fires were burning, Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron, Michigan were also suffering from devastating fires. The fact that all of these fires occurred on the same day has led to many conspiracy theories both then and now.

The Great Boston Fire occurred a year later in 1872 and the Great San Francisco Fire occurred after the earthquake in 1906. These fires, along with the Chicago Fire, were all urban fires, whereas the Peshtigo Fire was a wild fire that engulfed the community.

Mel Kishner was a famous Wisconsin landscape artist who did a series of water color paintings on the fire around 100 years later. Local artist and illustrator Luanne Harff-Burchinal painted a mural of the fire in 1967 that still hangs prominently in the Peshtigo Fire Museum in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Shortly after the fire "Harper's Weekly" ran a story on it with an illustration, but no actual photos from the time exist.

This question was written by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851

Australian bushfire art is as Australian as the koala and eucalyptus!

William Strutt was an English artist who arrived in Australia for the impending gold rush of the 1850s, berthing in Melbourne in December 1850. Just a few months later he witnessed the terrifying bushfire from which the inspiration for his Magnum Opus came. The painting now resides permanently in the State Library of Victoria.

Many Australian artists painted fires, including Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams, Russell Drysdale, Clifton Pugh, and Sidney Nolan on bushfires and burning-off. Each managed to convey the bushfire as both quintessentially Australian and paradoxically alien. Bushfires did not light up the landscape, they became the landscape.

This question was fired by Phoenix Rising member 1nn1.

Answer: Krakatoa

Munch cleverly uses art nouveau techniques in "The Scream" to distort the human within the work, emphasising the emotion of horror being experienced by the subject. What has served to elevate the status of the work higher, to the point where it is praised as being "the 'Mona Lisa' of our time", is the tumultuous orange and crimson sky that serves as its backdrop.

Three scientists from the Texas State University published an article in a 2004 edition of "Sky & Telescope" claiming that they had (a) pinpointed the exact location of where Munch was inspired to create the painting and (b) that the lurid background was a result of Krakatoa's massive explosion in 1883, ten years prior to the work. As part of their evidence they draw on Munch's own words: "I was walking along the road with two friends -- then the Sun set -- all at once the sky became blood red -- and I felt overcome with melancholy. I stood still and leaned against the railing, dead tired -- clouds like blood and tongues of fire hung above the blue-black fjord and the city."

They then point to a series of amazing twilights that Europe was experiencing from late 1883 to early 1884. The Oslo newspaper commented on their deep red sunsets during this period, the New York Times reported (28 November, 1883) "Soon after 5 o'clock the western horizon suddenly flamed into a brilliant scarlet, which crimsoned sky and clouds. Many thought that a great fire was in progress... . The clouds gradually deepened to a bloody red hue, and a sanguinary flush was on the sea..." and the Royal Society of London, who'd produced a document entitled "Unusual Optical Phenomena of the Atmosphere", incorporated a section in there to detail "Descriptions of the Unusual Twilight Glows in Various Parts of the World, in 1883-4".

Whether this adds or takes away from the mystery of this great painting... I'll let you be the judge.

This question erupted from the mind of Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.