The first ever anti-football painting: A consideration of the soccer match in John Singer Sargent’s "Gassed"

The paper presents a discussion of Gassed, a large oil painting by John Singer Sargent displayed at the Imperial War Museum in London. Completed in 1919, Gassed is the major achievement from Sargent’s commission as an official war artist at the appointment of the British War Memorials Committee during the latter period of World War I. Prominent in the painting is a group of soldiers, blinded by a mustard gas attack, being lead to a casualty clearing station tent. In the distant background of the painting, another group of soldiers can be seen kitted out in football attire playing a match. The significance of this football imagery is our point of enquiry. As our title suggests, some recent interpretations regard the painting as offering critical reflection, from the time, about the symbolic links between sport and war. However, while the painting may certainly be left open to this type of viewer interpretation, archival and secondary resource material research does not support such a critical intention by the artist. Yet, nor is there evidence that Sargent’s intention was the projection of war-heroism. Rather, Sargent’s endeavour to faithfully represent what he observed allows Gassed to be regarded as a visual record of routine activity behind the lines and of football as an aspect of the daily life of British soldiers during the Great War

Sargent: portraits de jeunesse

Peintres de la lumière: Sargent/Sorolla, Paris, Paris Musées, 200

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose and the process of painting

“One Object” is a British Art Studies series that uses an object from a collection as a starting point for collaborative research. Rebecca Hellen and Elaine Kilmurray have co-authored this essay based on their recent analysis of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1885–86) by John Singer Sargent This “One Object” article on John Singer Sargent’s Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1885–86) brings together recent technical examination of the painting with the “patchwork” of moments, ideas, and themes that inform the history of its making. A variety of observations were recorded by artists and writers who were staying in or visiting Broadway in Worcestershire when Sargent was making his “big picture” there over the late summers and early autumns of 1885 and 1886. By connecting the research carried out in the conservation studio with research from the archive, we present new information about Sargent’s working methods. In considering technical information in tandem with Sargent’s preparatory work, this article explores the evolution of one of Sargent’s best-known paintings