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Ojibwe Girl, Minnesota, 1907. By Roland Reed .

Untitled, Mark Rothko

Vija Celmins    Night Sky I (Reversed), 2002

British battleship HMS Vanguard at sea as seen from the destroyer HMS Childers, May 16th, 1949. Vanguard, the last battleship constructed in the world, reflected the culmination of British wartime experience. Essentially she was a modified Lion class ship, sporting eight 15" guns as opposed to the nine 16" intended for the original design. This decision was made due to Britain’s existing stock of 15" turrets and guns, which would allow Vanguard to be completed before her unmodified cousins. Vanguard’s design was revised and modified as the war went on, causing delays in construction that resulted in her not being completed until after the war’s end in 1946.

Though she never saw combat, she served as an image of British naval pride for years as flagship of various fleets before her eventual decommissioning in 1955. Vanguard was broken up and scrapped in 1960, the last British battleship to enter the fleet and the last one to leave it.

“USS Mississippi at Fleet Review, New York, 31 May 1934. Comdr. R.A. Spruance, Executive Officer.”

Portrait of Elena Pavlowski, Amedeo Modigliani

Medium: oil,canvas