Gassed (painting)
Gassed | |
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Oil on canvas | |
Dimensions | 231 cm × 611 cm (91 in × 240½ in) |
Location | Imperial War Museum, London |
Gassed is a very large
Details
The painting measures 231.0 by 611.1 centimetres (7 ft 6.9 in × 20 ft 0.6 in). The composition includes a central group of eleven soldiers depicted nearly life-size. Nine wounded soldiers walk in a line, in three groups of three, along a
History
In May 1918, Sargent was one of several painters commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee of the British
As an American painter, Sargent was asked to create a work embodying Anglo-American co-operation. Although he was 62, he travelled to the Western Front in July 1918, accompanied by Henry Tonks.[4] He spent time with the Guards Division near Arras and then with the American Expeditionary Forces near Ypres. He was determined to paint an epic work with many human figures but struggled to find a situation with American and British figures in the same scene. On 11 September 1918, Sargent wrote to Evan Charteris:
The Ministry of Information expects an epic – and how can one do an epic without masses of men? Excepting at night I have only seen three fine subjects with masses of men – one a harrowing sight, a field full of gassed and blindfolded men – another a train of trucks packed with "chair à cannon" – and another frequent sight a big road encumbered with troops and traffic, I daresay the latter, combining English and Americans, is the best thing to do, if it can be prevented from looking like going to the Derby.[5]
The "harrowing sight" referred to the aftermath of a German barrage that Sargent witnessed on 21 August 1918, at Le Bac-du-Sud, near
After tea we heard that on the Doullens Road at the Corps dressing station at le Bac-du-sud there were a good many gassed cases, so we went there. The dressing station was situated on the road and consisted of a number of huts and a few tents. Gassed cases kept coming in, lead along in parties of about six just as Sargent has depicted them, by an orderly. They sat or lay down on the grass, there must have been several hundred, evidently suffering a great deal, chiefly I fancy from their eyes which were covered up by a piece of lint.... Sargent was very struck by the scene and immediately made a lot of notes. It was a very fine evening and the sun toward setting.[4][7]
In his memoirs, General Haldane, the commander of VI Corps, one of Third Army's corps west of Bapaume, states that at 10:40 on 21 August the sun "burst through the mist" and so the German mustard gas was vaporized. One of his divisions, 2nd Division, had been advanced through the gassed area and had paused prior to resuming its successful advance: "without warning a considerable number of officers and men were 'gassed' and temporarily placed hors de combat. As the unfortunate victims were being helped, practically blinded, by their comrades on a field ambulance, John Sergeant happened to arrive on the scene. Shortly before he had told me that he had been commissioned to paint a picture which should be typical of the war, and I suggested 'tanks,' they being the latest military machine and a novel feature of it." However, as he later told Haldane, on seeing the gassed soldiers being led to the ambulance, "he decided that he has before him what he was seeking".[8]
Sargent worked on preparatory sketches for a road scene crowded with soldiers but decided to focus on the dressing station. The War Memorials Committee agreed to change the subject of the commission, and the painting was created at Sargent's studio in Fulham from late 1918 to early 1919.[5]
In 2023 the varnish which had been added during a previous restoration in the 1970s was replaced. It had slowly yellowed, changing the appearance of the painting.[1]
Completion
The painting was completed in March 1919, and Sargent was paid his £600 fee. It was first displayed at the Royal Academy in London in 1919.[1][9] It was voted picture of the year by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1919.[6][10] The painting was not universally liked: E. M. Forster considered it too heroic.[6] Winston Churchill praised its "brilliant genius and painful significance", but Virginia Woolf attacked its patriotism.[11] It is now held by the Imperial War Museum, along with several charcoal studies for the painting.[12] Other charcoal sketches are held by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. A small 10½ x 27¼ in. (26 x 69 cm) oil sketch, originally owned by Evan Charteris, was sold by Christie's in 2003 for £162,050 ($267,869).[5]
The painting provides a powerful testimony of the effects of chemical weapons, vividly described in
Sargent's painting refers to Bruegel's 1568 work
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Addley, Esther (12 October 2023). "'It glows': restorer removes queasy look from first world war painting Gassed". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
- ^ Tolson, Roger (2010). "Art from Different Fronts of World War One". BBC. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- ^ "'Gassed', by John Singer Sargent". The Guardian. 13 November 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- ^ a b Imperial War Museum. "Gassed [Art.IWM ART 1460]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
- ^ a b c "John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) Gassed, an oil study". Christie's. 11 June 2003. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- ^ a b c Harris 2005
- ^ R. Ormond, John Singer Sargent Paintings drawings watercolours, London, 1970, p. 258, quoted in the lot notes at Christies
- ^ Aylmer Haldane, A Soldier's Saga: The Autobiography of General Sir Aylmer Haldane, (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1948) p. 357. Quotations from that source.
- ^ Cox, Brian M. (2010). "Torald Sollmann's Studies of Mustard Gas" (PDF). Reflections. pp. 124–128. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- ^ Willsdon 2000, p. 123
- ^ A Deadly Weapon, A Solemn Memorial, Wall Street Journal, 9 November 2012
- ^ Imperial War Museum. "Collections Search for "gassed" [by Sargent, John Singer]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
- ^ "The Pathological Action of War Gasses - General Considerations". The Medical Front WWI. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
References
- Harris, James C. MD (January 2005). "Gassed". Art and Images in Psychiatry. 62 (1): 15–18. PMID 15630068.
- Willsdon, Clare A. P. (2000). Mural painting in Britain 1840–1940: image and meaning (2000 ed.). ISBN 978-0-19-817515-5. - Total pages: 431
Further reading
- Herdrich, Stephanie L; Weinberg, H. Barbara (2000). American drawings and watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870999524.
External links
Media related to Gassed (painting) at Wikimedia Commons
- The most famous painting of WW1 looks different now IWM: Conflict Explained
- Gassed on Google Art Project. Retrieved 21 April 2013.