John Singer Sargent

"Gassed"

          In US History this past week, we were assigned different topics to research, each topic being related to WWI. My assignment was an artist named John Singer Sargent, who was made famous during WWI for his painting "Gassed", a depiction of the aftermath of a gassing on several soldiers on the Western Front in August 1918. At first my research was actually quite difficult, I knew there was more out there than Wikipedia, and things that were probably more reliable as well. After struggling for a while, aided by the help of my wonderful US History teacher, Mrs. Lawson, I was pushed in the right direction. That direction being looking at the "Notes", or sources, at the bottom of Wikipedia's Gas Article. Luckily, my first hit was the jack pot. The Imperial War Museum's archive was absolutely wonderful, it was here that I learned a billion helpful things about Sargent and his paintings.

A photograph of something similar to what Sargent may have seen that inspired "Gassed"

     Sargent's reason for being in France to witness the aftermath of a Mustard Gas attack was that he was traveling with fellow artist Henry Tonks. In a letter that Henry Tonks writes to an Alfred Yockeny in March of 1920, he explains how the two men came about seeing the tragic number of gas cases:
                    
                               "After tea we heard that on the Doullens Road at the Corps dressing station at le Bac-du-sud there were a good many gassed cases, so we went there. The dressing station was situated on the road and consisted of a number of huts and a few tents. Gassed cases kept coming in, lead along in parties of about six just as Sargent has depicted them, by an orderly. They sat or lay down on the grass, there must have been several hundred, evidently suffering a great deal, chiefly I fancy from their eyes which were covered up by a piece of lint... Sargent wasvery struck by the scene and immediately made a lot of notes."


        Not only was Sargent very intrigued by the scene, but he had also been commissioned by the British Government to contribute a painting for the Hall of Remembrance for World War One. On the Imperial War Museum website I found a photo taken in May of 1921 of the painting hanging in the IWM's Crystal Palace.

"Gassed" haning in the Crystal Palace, 1921

       An interesting fact about Sargent's "Gassed" is that there are soldiers playing futbol in the background of the massive oil on canvas painting. This implies that although there are hundreds blinded and injured, life still goes on. (After reading there was a futbol game in the background of this picture I honestly couldn't believe it, so I hurried on over to Wikipedia and zoomed in on the monster, and sure enough, there is a futbol game alright!)
       As I was researching and scanning over different articles about Sargent's "Gassed" on the IWM's website, I ran over a less popular piece done by Sargent from around the same time. During Sargent's research for his painting "Gassed", he came down with a bad case of influenza. As Sargent recovered in a hospital in Roisel, he was inspired by the injured soldiers around him, which led to his painting of "The Interior of a Hospital Tent".

"The Interior of a Hospital Tent"
watercolor on canvas

       After getting my fair share of information from the Imperial War Museum, I was still hungry for facts about Sargent himself, and what his life was like as one of the "most successful painters of the Edwardian Age".
       After leafing through AVL for a while, I struck oil when I came across an article about Sargent in the Britannica Encyclopedia. Although Sargent is an American, he was born in Florence, Italy, and was raised abroad until he finally made his way to America in 1876, which was when he became a citizen of the United States. Sargent is most famous for doing a variety of impressionistic portraits of people from the upper class. In 1874, while Sargent was studying in Paris he was coached by a talented painter, Carolus-Duran, who had a great impact on the quality of Sargent's work.
        One of Sargent's most famous portrait's is "Madame X", which was, at the time, shocking and considered very promiscuous. I found a site near the end of my research called John Singer Sargent: the Complete Works, where I found a whole gallery of his paintings. I encourage you to check them out, my personal favorite is "Rosina".

"Madame X"

     Overall I like to think of my research as a success, not only did I learn something new, but I have a new favorite artist!