Returning to the Trenches

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson

1916 · Drypoint · Drawings and Prints

Unable to enlist in the British army for health reasons, Nevinson volunteered in fall 1914 for a Red Cross ambulance unit serving northern France and Belgium. Here, he conveyed the dynamism of a seemingly impenetrable line of French soldiers, or poilus, whom he would have certainly encountered. Dressed in their distinctive uniforms, they advance with purpose and determination, an effect amplified by the faceted forms that capture a sense of endless, repetitive movement and reflect Nevinson’s earlier association with Futurism. Individual features are minimized and further obscured by capes, hats, raised bayonets, and bladelike shields, while the broad, sweeping strokes that depict the men’s lower bodies unify the group. Nevinson made a painting, drawings, and a woodcut of this image; the woodcut appeared in the second issue of BLAST, the "War Number."

Artist

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson

Date

1916

Medium

Drypoint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, Peco Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019