Both the Great War and the Second World War would change the lives and the work of artists forever.
The brutal honesty of their retellings would go on to change both the course of modern art and the way that the world thought about war.
This week, services and events around the country will commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
To mark June 6, we've taken a look at the works of artists who – across centuries, countries and conflicts – have highlighted the devastation of war through moving and challenging artworks.
The Menin Road, Paul Nash, 1919, Imperial War Museum
Paul Nash is one of the best known of Britain’s official war artists, having been appointed to document the First World War, before continuing in the role in the Second World War.
His startling landscape paintings of the front line showed the ravaged battlefields, and implied the human loss that they had hosted.
This apocalyptic scene shows sunlight bouncing chillingly from puddles formed in shell holes, while four lone figures trudge through the aftermath.
This painting is currently on display at IWM North as part of its Making a New World season.
A Dead Soldier, Italian, 17th century, National Gallery
Artists had, of course, been painting scenes of war for centuries before 1914. This one is, however, more contemplative than the tempestuous battle scenes more common of the 17th century. The artist of this work is unknown (it was once thought to be by Diego Velazquez) and so is the conflict that presumably killed him. And yet the image of the loan dead soldier, his body lying in the open air, unattended to, is a universal tragedy.
A Battery Shelled, Percy Wyndham Lewis, 1919, Imperial War Museum
The dehumanising nature of the First World War became the subject of many artists' work during the four years and after. In this painting by British artist Percy Wyndham Lewis, the lines are blurred between man and machine. Three officers regard their surroundings, while figures in the middle distance struggle through the grey battlefield, the air filled with smoke from nearby shells. Like Nash's The Menin Road, this painting is also currently on display at IWM North as part of its Making a New World season.
Martyred Spain, André Fougeron, 1937, Tate Modern
Conflict did not end with the First World War's conclusion in 1918, as many had hoped. In the years prior to the Second World War, civil war broke out in Spain. Artist Fougeron allied with left-leaning Republicans against the forces of General Franco. This painting shows Spain as a faceless woman who has died by the side of her horse, her hand grasping in tension, implying her fierce fight before her demise.
Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World, 1918, Imperial War Museum
This Paul Nash landscape that is more akin to an alien planet than anything we recognise on earth. The environment is shattered, the ground is made entirely of shell holes and the trees are like arms reaching out from the dirt. The cold light of day breaks over the battlefield through red ochre clouds. The title is We Are Making a New World, and it is a frightening one.
An Episode on the Field of Battle, Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, National Gallery, 1848
This work by Belgian artist Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny is thought to be depicting a scene from the English Civil War, which took place 200 years previously. As men engage in bitter battle in the background, an unmanned horse leaps frantically from a berm, his head flung wildly behind him in fear. He clears a dead man and another slain steed, but looks sure to collide with a young man on the floor below him, who can only look on helplessly.
Shelterers in the Tube, Henry Moore, 1941, Tate Modern
It was during the Second World War that the conflict came into the homes of the British people. Londoners were under fire from Nazi Germany’s air force during the Blitz, and many were forced to take shelter in the tunnels of the London Underground to escape the shelling. Sculptor Henry Moore made haunting drawings of the families; huddled figures, including children, gather in the darkness, anxious for their homes and their loved ones.
Stanley Spencer, Travoys arriving with wounded at a dressing-station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916
Stanley Spencer spent time in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was positioned in Macedonia in 1916, during the First World War. He made this work on his return – a commission for a Hall of Remembrance which was never built – recalling scenes of wounded men being brought into a sanctuary-like medical centre. The war’s effect on Spencer was so profound that questions surrounding life and death would permeate his work frequently thereafter. This painting is currently on display at IWM North as part of its Making a New World season.
Wilfred Owen, John Guston, 1916, National Portrait Gallery
This artwork is not a painting, but a photograph – one of acclaimed war poet Wilfred Owen. The poems written by Owen during the First World War, including Dulce et decorum est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, are considered some of the most searing depictions of conflict ever penned. This photograph was commissioned by Owen’s uncle, who took pride in his nephew’s entrance into the Manchester Regiment. Owen would die in battle in 1918, a week to the day before the end of the war was announced. His mother received word of his death amid the celebrations of Armistice Day.
Gassed, John Singer Sargent, 1919, Imperial War Museum
Gassed by John Singer Sargent has become one of the most enduring depictions of the tragedies of the First World War. Ten men walk in single file along a duckboard, holding onto one another for assistance. They have been blinded, temporarily or possibly permanently, most likely by a gas attack – around them lie countless other men with bandaged eyes. IWM North are also currently displaying this work as part of Making a New World.
