C.R.W. Nevinson
C. R. W. Nevinson (aka Richard Nevinson, 13 August 1889 – October 1946), like John Singer Sargent, also seems an unlikely choice for an official war artist. Unlike Sargent, whose style by the outbreak of the war had become a standard of good taste, Nevinson’s cubist manner was anything but. Nevinson served in the war in the Friends’ Ambulance Unit by tending to the French wounded and as a volunteer ambulance driver, and later in the home service of the Royal Army Medical Corps. His disturbing experience inspired paintings such as La Patrie and La Mitrailleuse, which through their sharp stylization and bold colors portray the frightening human machinery of war.
"Paths to Glory", by C.R.W. Nevinson, 1917
Otto Dix
Otto Dix (1891-1969) Otto Dix, Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor (Assault under Gas), 1924, watercolour, 35.3 x 47.5 cm, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Dixs vision sometimes verges on the nightmarish. Seen head on, close up, throwing their grenades among the barbed wire and tree roots, the masked soldiers appear inhuman, just like the surroundings which appear unreal, the No Man's Land of the trenches. It is noteworthy that Dix chose to depict not enemy, but German soldiers. In 1924, which was one of a set of 50 plates entitled War, this engraving shocked public opinion in that Dix shows a complete lack of respect for his old comrades in the fighting forces. In place of the exaltation of heroism, he prefers to denounce the savagery of the destruction.
Frank brangwyn
Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) Another example of a monumental representation, but from a later period. The work of Brangwyn is that of an artist who made large formats and brutal realism his personal hallmark. Paying great attention to detail in his skilful stagings of attacks, he composed pictures whose dimensions and composition seek a spectacular effect. In 1924, he was commissioned to do a set of wall paintings for Westminster Palace, including this one, where his expressionism was found unacceptably morbid for the official building it was painted for.