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.