Paths of Glory (painting)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Paths of Glory | |
|---|---|
_-_Paths_Of_Glory_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) | |
| Artist | C. R. W. Nevinson |
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Oil painting |
| Dimensions | 46 cm × 61 cm (18 in × 24 in) |
| Location | Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London |
Paths of Glory is a 1917 painting by British artist C. R. W. Nevinson.[1] The title quotes from a line from Thomas Gray's 1750 poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave". It is held by the Imperial War Museum in London, which describes it as "one of Nevinson's most famous paintings".[2][3]
Nevinson had served as a volunteer ambulance driver with the Friends' Ambulance Service on the Western Front in the early months of the First World War, from November 1914 to January 1915, and then returned to England. He served as an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps in London but was invalided out in late 1915 due to rheumatic fever. During this period he painted several paintings such as La Mitrailleuse (1915) and The Doctor (1916).
He was commissioned as a war artist in 1917 and was sent to France by the British War Propaganda Bureau. He adopted a Realist style to depict the horror of the war, moved decisively away from his earlier Modernist and Vorticist styles.