Description
Object description
image: The aftermath of a battle showing a muddy and flooded battlefield. A long line of wounded men, some with limbs
bandaged, men carrying their comrades, straggling from right to left. Corpses lie in and around water-filled shell holes. Artillery pieces
can be seen firing to the right of the composition, with a heavy pall of smoke and flames over the target area.
Label
This work was commissioned by the Ministry of Information for the Hall of Remembrance alongside Sargent's, 'Gassed'.
Nevinson describes how he produced the sketches for this work during a trip to Passchendaele with a fellow officer: 'We arrived at Ypres,
and while he went to the Officers' Club I wandered on up towards the Salient and obtained notes and rough sketches for my painting,
'Harvest of Battle'.' (CRW Nevinson, Paint and Prejudice, 1937)
Nevinson provides his own description of this work in a letter to Alfred Yockney from the Ministry of Information on 11 June 1919: 'A
typical scene after an offensive at dawn. Walking wounded, prisoners and stretcher cases are making their way to the rear through the water-
logged country of Flanders. By now the Infantry have advanced behind the creeping barrage on the right, only leaving the dead, mud, & wire;
but their former positions are now occupied by the Artillery. The enemy is sending up SOS signals and once more these shattered men will be
subjected to counter-battery fire. British aeroplanes are spotting hostile positions.'
Label
This painting was to feature in a Hall of Remembrance devoted to 'fighting subjects, home subjects and the war at sea and in the air'. The centre of the scheme was to be a coherent series of paintings based on the dimensions of Uccello's 'Battle of San Romano' in the National Gallery (72 x 125 inches), this size being considered suitable for a commemorative battle painting. While the commissions included some of the most avant-garde British artists of the time, the British War Memorials Committee advisors saw the scheme as firmly within the tradition of European art commissioning, looking to models from the Renaissance. It was intended that both the art and the setting would celebrate national ideals of heroism and sacrifice. However, the Hall of Remembrance was never built and the work was given to the Imperial War Museum.
History note
Ministry of Information commission. Commission administration transferred to Imperial War
Museum
History note
Note: This artwork was relocated in August 1939 to a less vulnerable site outside London when the museum activated its evacuation plan.
Inscription
C.R.W. NEVINSON. 1919
