William Orpen

Adam and Eve at Peronne

Artist: William Orpen

Media: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 76.2 x 63.5 cm

Date: 1918

Sir William Orpen was born in Dublin Ireland in 1878. At the age of thirteen William was already winning art awards form the Metropolitan School of art in Dublin. William initially wanted to be a caricaturist but his cartoons were rejected by the magazines he submitted them too. After little success as a caricaturist William decided to teach at the Dublin School of art. In 1908 William became a popular portrait painter, painting portraits of prominent military figures such as Winston Churchill. In 1917 William was commissioned to produce painting of the Western Front. Many critics now consider William to be the greatest war artist Britain ever produced. More info

I chose Orpen’s Adam and Eve at Peronne because it shows an act of kindness amongst the destruction of war. We see buildings in tatters and a soldier in full uniform being weighed down by his gear. A kind civilian woman offers some fruit to the weary soldier. Toward the end of the First World War the soldier’s rations became scarce, many had to resort to catching and eating rats that had infested the trenches.

 

John Singer Sargent

Gassed 

Artist: John Singer Sargent

Media: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 231 x 611 cm

Date: 1919

John Singer Sargent was born in Florence in 1856. Both of his parents were American and John considered himself American even though he spent most of his life in Europe. Known his figure and landscape paintings, John mainly used oil and watercolor. John was known for having a huge output of paintings and sketches, often working night and day, on vacations and sometimes seven days a week. He painted U.S. Presidents, European aristocracy, business tycoons, gypsies and tramps alike. More info

During the war John Sargent traveled near the front lines to capture the harsh realities of the war. His painting Gassed shows a group of soldiers after a gas attack. many have been blinded while others lay on the ground trying to recover. This was the first war where weaponized gas was used, creating a whole new dynamic in battle.

Henry Tonks

Advanced Dressing Station in France 

Artist: Henry Tonks

Media: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 182.8 x 218.4 cm

Date: 1918

Henry Tonks was born in 1862 in England. He was the fifth of eleven children. In his twenties Henry became a successful surgeon. He later left the medical field to peruse his passion for painting. He attended the Westminster School of art in 1887 and eventually joined the Slade School of Art as staff. Henry was eventually commissioned to be a war artist, there he used his medical knowledge to produce a series of pastel drawings of wounded soldiers. The details were so precise that the drawings were used in plastic surgery. More info

I chose Advanced Dressing Station in France because it shows the horrors of the wounded soldier. There is a lot of commotion in the painting, I’m drawn to two soldiers, one limping along with his leg bandaged, and another getting his leg amputated. Due to lack of supplies and equipment many soldiers died from simple injuries during the war. Often limbs would be amputated but because of the unsanitary environment many would die from infection. Both Henry Tonks and John Singer Sargent (from my previous post) where sent into the war at the same time. While Tonks produced Advanced Dressing Station in France, Sargent produced Gassed, it’s interesting how both paintings complement one another.