John Singer Sargent's Gased Analysis

609 Words2 Pages

“Gassed” painted by John Singer Sargent in 1919 is typically displayed in the Imperial War Museum in London. However, the painting is currently on tour throughout North American until late 2018.

Figure 1 Image from Imperial War Museum

The painting “Gassed” by Sargent is a classic picture of exhaustion and perseverance, making it a great representation of an artistic response to war, the drowned out faces and almost faded coloring represent the long drawn on war, the sea of men represents how many fought for their country, and the blindfolds represent their willingness to be blindly led into battle.
In the painting, the yellow faded coloring of the sky draws straight into the yellowing and tarnished look of the men’s uniforms. A symbol of just how long the war had been going on and the exhaustion felt by the men from rough terrain and the many battles they faced along the way. When looking at the men’s faces and body language, weakness, desperation, and a battle to keep moving forward is seen. Two rows of men are seen being led through a field of fellow brethren. Some are being held up as they struggle to keep forward momentum. A depiction of the brutality seen in war; devastation to both mind and body. The war never …show more content…

The multitude of bodies is depicted as never ending. Bringing to light the reality of just how many men are needed to fight. Their expressions indicate the exhaustion they feel and the little sleep they are able to obtain. Men lying on the ground, no blankets, no beds or warm pillows alludes to the cold reality of war. You sleep when and where you can not knowing when or if you will get to sleep again. Piled together searching for the comfort and warmth of another body. Even while knowing the callousness of war these men persevered and came forward with gallant bravery, something that is unequivocally necessary in a

Show More
Related

  • The Graphic Horror of War: George Gittoes

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    George Gittoes (b.1949) creates works that that communicate the issue of the graphic horror of war. A social realist painter, photographer and filmmaker, his approach to art is that ‘he layers and accumulates material until, out of apparent chaos, there is a synthesis of idea, passion and image’ (Mendelssohn, 2014). As an eyewitness to the world's war zones, Gittoes clearly uses his work as a means of communication to society.

    Read More

  • Who Is Leonard Peltier A Hero

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Painting is a way to examine the world in ways denied me by the United States justice system, a way to travel beyond the walls and bars of the penitentiary. Through my paints I can be with my People—in touch with my culture, tradition, and spirit. I can watch little children in regalia, dancing and smiling; see my elders in prayer; behold the intense glow in a warrior’s eye. As I work the canvas, I am a free man.” – Leonard Peltier

    Read More

  • Washington Crossing The Delaware Essay

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the painting, Leutze uses color representation to depict the mood as hardship leading into victory. In the background of the painting, the viewer can see the clouds departing to allow the sun to shine. The use of bright colors in front of Washington and his men creates the feeling that there is hope. The use of dark colors behind Washington and his men creates the feeling that they are running away from defeat. On the other hand, color can’t be used as representation in the poem unless it’s stated in the poem; in this case, color is not mentioned except for the description of the men’s clothes. In the poem, only diction can be used to represent moods and images for the reader. The following are statement from the poem is used to create to create an image for the reader: “Strong tide was washing hero clean.” Although this statement reveals the setting, it also expresses how the water is washing the men of their wrongdoing and revealing

    Read More

  • The Awful Majesty That Is War Analysis

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.”

    Read More

  • AQWF

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.

    Read More

  • Comparing Irony of War in Dulce et Decorum, Regeneration, and Quiet on the Western Front

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...s, demonstrated through the author's talent, are denouncing the authority figures who were supposed to guide his generation into adulthood but instead turned the youth against each other in the pursuit of superficial ideals. The soldiers were simply the victims of a meaningless war.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...lot of war veterans, a confusion that illuminates the mind and eventually lead to self-destructing acts. The theme of confusion looms in and out of The Things They Carried as a setback of living the life of war.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Horace Pippin's Outpost Raid: Champagne Sector

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    This painting presents two soldiers are standing in a trench. The soldier who wears a pale blue uniform stands beside a sentry box on the right and the other soldier who wears a different uniform enters from the left. Only the expression on the face of the right soldier’s is presented and it seems to show his scorn to the soldier on the left. As we can see in the painting, some other soldiers who are probably the left soldier’s comrades are hiding behind the sandbags. The painting uses diagonal lines which are neither vertical nor horizontal to make the objects seem to be unstable and in motion. It makes the audience feel that those soldiers are moving or going to take an action. Horace Pippin successfully uses diagonal lines to convey a feeling of movement for this painting. Outpost Raid: Champagne Sector is two-dimensional and composed of shapes which are formed by lines. This artwork uses shapes to depict the soldiers as well as background’s objects. Because the artist tends to use subdued colors such as gray, brown and black, the painting create a sense of calm and composure for the audience. The use of colors make the audience feel peaceful although they are seeing a painting which presents the scenes of war. In addition, the uses of color

    Read More

  • Comparison of "Anthem for a Doomed Youth" and "Dulce and Decorum Est"

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    encapsulates the futility and horror of war through the use of vivid war images like

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front and the Horrors of War

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind.  Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable.  Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone.  Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off.  Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death.  His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.”  The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.

    Read More

  • Art Analysis Of John Singer Sargent's 'Gassed'

    2041 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...he American Civil War. No matter what, the pictures of war that I’ve seen all have the same sad, hopeless, and tired expression of the soldiers that have fought that I think the painter was trying to show. This expression that has been like boulders on the shoulders of the soldiers won’t just go away, but I see it outside of the war as well; the wars of everyday life. It’s almost as if these warriors’ heavy hearts were so heavy that it physically weighed their bodies down to a shrug. I think that John Singer Sargent wasn’t sent to France to just capture the aftermath of World War I, but to capture the feeling that people have after their own wars. I think this heavy hearted and sorrow feeling that is expressed in this picture wasn’t just painted for this particular war, but to represent the wars people like us, the soldiers, fight in everyday life in our own war.

    Read More

  • In Another Country of Hemingway

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.

    Read More

  • The Man I Killed, By Tim O’Brien

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    The detailed descriptions of the dead man’s body show the terrible costs of the war in a physical aspect. O’Brien’s guilt almost takes on its own rhythm in the repetition of ideas, phrases, and observations about the man’s body. Some of the ideas here, especially the notion of the victim being a “slim, young, dainty man,” help emphasize O’Brien’s fixation on the effects of his action—that he killed someone who was innocent and not meant to be fighting in the war. At the same time, his focus on these physical characteristics, rather than on his own feelings, betrays his attempt to keep some distance in order to dull the pain. The long, unending sentences force the reader to read the deta...

    Read More

  • Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art Analysis

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    I believe the meaning of the artwork was to show how us mend are expected to behave in society during the 1950’s to 1960’s. They are expected to be patriotic and brave. I believe this as ‘All American men of war’ and also

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Last Laugh Poem

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    The tone is bitter and intense in a realistic way. It is achieved by the vivid and gruesome images in the poem. Wilfred Owen 's use of imagery in this poem is by depicting emotional, nightmarish, and vivid words to capture the haunting encounters of WWI that soldiers went through. In the first stanza, Owen depicts his fellow soldiers struggling through the battlefield, but their terrible health conditions prevent them from their strong actions in the war. When Owen says, “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags” (lines 1-2). This provides the readers with an unexpected view and appearance of soldiers, as they usually picture as strong, noble, and brawny-looking men. Soldiers sacrifice themselves to fight for their country and are exhausted from their unhealthy lifestyle. In lines 7-8, “Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of gas-shells dropping softly behind,” they have lost the facade of humanity and their bodies are all wearied and weak on their march. This reveals a glimpse at the soldiers’ actions, as well as inferring to a psychological effect of the war. Then in line 5, “Men marched asleep,” the author is making abnormality to be one of the major purposes of the war, that it

    Read More

More about John Singer Sargent's Gased Analysis

Open Document