Culture

A woman with a rifle and a flag stepping over the fallen. Painted after the July Revolution. The visual grammar of collective courage - so iconic that every liberation image since has had to reckon with it.

Florence Owens Thompson, thirty-two, three children pressed against her in a lean-to. Courage as the dignity of continuing when continuation itself is an act of bravery. The photograph that put a human face on the Depression.

French soldiers executing Spanish civilians in the dark, the central figure's arms thrown wide, a lantern the only light. Courage as the moment before the rifles fire - the figure who cannot escape and does not look away.