I found this image while browsing online and it instantly caught my eye. I knew I had seen it elsewhere and surely enough it is the first picture for the chapter that we are currently on. I did a little research on the artist who drew this, Nevinson; and it turned out that he was the son of a famous war correspondent. This shows that Nevinson was affected closely by the war and his painting shows his own feelings as well as the general mood at the time. A quick glance at this painting and one will automatically notice the use of dark, drab colors. These dull colors serve to show that it was a dark and gloomy time in history. The soldiers seem to be unhappy and almost disgusted at what they are doing. They are using a machine gun, a new invention during the time of WWI. This gun could fire many more rounds than weapons preceding it and could therefore take more lives as well. The hard, defined lines that represent the machine gun are also used to depict the soldiers. This shows that the soldiers are turning almost robotic and become one with the killing machine. Another interesting thing that jumped out at me was that the soldier in the middle has red pants on. In a panting where all the other colors are dark and drab, the center of the painting has a splotch of red on it. I believe that this use of the color red is a symbol of the bloodshed that occurred during this gruesome war. It was the largest war up to date and millions of people suffered and died. The background seems to be metal wires, most likely representing the barbed wires that were so common at the time. Overall this painting is a good depiction of the mood of the war, dark and dreary.
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