Returning to the Trenches

The mass of marching troops express the dynamism of “the great machine that is modern war,” which the Futurist movement glorified as a means of liberating the world from the moribund past. After serving with the Red Cross at the front, Nevinson was appointed an official war artist in 1917. He became deeply affected by the carnage of battle and his later images portrayed the dehumanization of soldiers. He broke with the Futurists’ dogmas in 1919.