ART F200X Early Modern Blog
Gassed, (1919)
John Singer Sargent
Arras, France
Gassed, by John Singer Sargent in the military during World War I. The painting depicts dark olive colors as many injured gather and are guided after the horrific event of being blinded by mustard gas. In the painting the bandages over the eyes of many soldiers as they are grouped up and guided by orderlies to a dressing station.
Tunnellers, (1916)
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson
British, London
A bleak and dark image showing a man with a gas mask walking into a room. Dark colors of black and brown with blue to show the skin, candle, and shirt. White highlights and shadows of black to separate the browns and blues from each other. This image is made to show fear as the in and bleak discovery of the tunnels.
On the Wire, (1918)
Harvey Thomas Dunn
France
A final bleak painting for our gallery, it depicts two Soldiers who are American, carrying another soldier on a stretcher along a barbed-wire fence. Their gas masks hang from their necks as the front soldier looks forward while the soldier in the back looks down at the white face of the third soldier in the stretcher who is either dead or seriously injured.
Personal Thoughts and Association
Each of the pieces of art are from the early modern era in a dark time where fear, loss, sadness, desperation, and lastly death were extremely common not just in art but in the world. It is a bleak view of a dark time with death and uncertainty all around us. Although each painting is sad, dark and projects fear and pain, they all have their own aesthetic differences. Gassed by John Singer Sargent is dark but not with traditional shadows and instead electing to use olive which I like quite a bit. The same can be said with the blacks and browns of Tunnellers by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson. Using white and black to separate the browns and blues from each other. Lastly on the wire by Harvey Thomas Dunn, I love the use of the colors to separate the other colors white to create a foggy background and black to create the shapes of the soldiers and the green of the grass to create the foreground. I like each of the paintings in the same way I liked Self-Portrait 'Les Miserables' by Paul Gauguin as they are so bold and sharp, yet muted with very unusual colors. Lots of details in their strange colors that catch my eye, each sad and creating an emotion within me as I look at each painting, and finally a product of their time.
Works Cited
Metmuseum.org, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/746147.
“On the Wire.” National Museum of American History, americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_447430.
“World War I and American Art: PAFA - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.” PAFA, 3 Nov. 2014, www.pafa.org/museum/exhibitions/world-war-i-american-art.
You can really see the attention to detail in gas and on the wire. The art pieces really show off the troubling and dark times that was being experienced through out America. I can especially feel the energy in Tunnellers and the emotional expression through the color schemes is very clear of somber and eerie.
ReplyDeleteAll these paintings really show war in its true light, not as something glorious, but something terrible and devastating. The fear, pain, and loss of life was a slap in the face to so many who saw war as a way to gain honor by defending their country. As weapons were much more developed, the loss of life was so much greater than it had been in any other war. I think the works you chose really illustrated that.
ReplyDeleteThese paintings really do show war for what it is. Lots of young people thought they were going on an adventure, there were lots of men under 18 even that got in illegally because they thought it would be such an adventure. They only learned the hard way...
ReplyDeleteThe colors used in each of these paintings creates the lot of the environment in them. I think these paintings do a great job of showing the dread of war without being dramatic.