7 Artworks Inspired by the Somme

The formation of Britain's mass army in 1914 drew men from all professions into the ranks. Artists and illustrators were no exception and enlisted with the same patriotic zeal, spirit of adventure and sense duty as their fellow countrymen.  

For many of these 'soldier-artists' the first taste of combat would be during the Somme campaign in 1916. The battle remains central to Britain’s understanding of the First World War. Yet its visual representation by artists on both sides can be surprising, and reveal unfamiliar aspects of the campaign. Incorporating every artistic style practiced in Britain and Europe at the time, including Impresionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, 'Vorticist' cubism and Naturalism, the art inspired by the battle demonstrates the vast reach and impact of this defining event of the First World War.

Despite his duties, Shephard was still expected deliver cartoons for Punch and other publications. These satirised the hardships of trench life, so it is just through Shephard's private impressions of the Western Front, like this painting and later ones of the Italian Front, that we see a more sensitive response to the war.

It was a brief posting and Smart was recalled to Britain in September to join the Machine Gun Corps. Even so, the experience of the Western Front was profound and he produced almost 40 war drawings. Thirteen of these featured devastated flashpoints of the Somme campaign, such as this drawing of the bombarded village of Fricourt. It combines Smart's vigorous technique with clever use of a coloured ground, which invests the scene with a subtle luminosity. Smart's short time at the front meant he had to work mostly from memory, aided by photographs. This drawing, for example, was taken from an official photograph of the village in July 1916.

Renowned for his ability to work quickly outdoors, Bone toured the battlefields of Fricourt, Mametz Wood, High Wood, Delville Wood and Pozieres completing over 150 drawings in pencil, pen, charcoal and chalk by October 1916. An Artillery Barrage on the Somme Battlefield is typical of his work, created with pencil and wash, its sketchy, on-the-spot vitality has the look of an authentic and impartial record. Bone even pictured himself drawing in the foreground.

To some though, Bone's drawings seemed remote and uninvolved. One newspaper, for example, quipped that his war drawings were 'like a peep down the wrong end of telescope' and the reception of his work on the whole was mixed from the British public.

Dead Germans in a Trench was a typically grisly sight, heightened by the eerie combination of the chalky Picardy soil and the deep blue sky. When exhibited in 1918, the painting even disturbed critics accustomed to images of war. One newspaper wrote: 'Mr Orpen is certainly not a sentimentalist; he seems to paint [the corpses] with cold, serene skill, just as he might paint a bunch of flowers'.

This example is part of Sommeschlact, a suite of eight prints in which Pechstein powerfully applied the harsh linear forms and exaggerated gesture of Expressionism to evoke the trauma of his experiences.

While serving, Roberts found few opportunities to create art. However, his fortunes changed in 1918 when he was accepted as an official war artist, first for the Canadians and then for the British. For the latter commission Roberts was simply required to create a painting of 'an active service scene', which allowed him to consider a number of subjects. His red chalk drawing, The Battle of Delville Wood, shows one subject under consideration. Concerning a particularly bloody engagement during the Battle of the Somme, the drawing was inspired by the recollections of older members of Roberts's regiment. With the jagged angularity of the charging figures and the cratered landscape, the drawing conveyed the energy and confusion of battle and hinted at the expressive potential of modernist aesthetics when applied to war subjects.

His maquette (model) for the South African National Memorial reflects the preference for this Naturalism in British and Commonwealth commemorative sculpture and a reliance on classical symbolism to evoke the scale of the sacrifice. Castor and Pollux were heroic twins in Greco-Roman mythology and represent the South African union of British colonists and Boer settlers answering the call of King and Empire. Nevertheless, the mannered sentiment of this and many other memorials offered little sense of the horror and ferocity of the events that necessitated them and instead tended to emphasise their makers' distance from the conflict.