£8,000
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson ARA (1889-1946) - Returning to the Trenches, 1916, drypoint on off white laid paper, signed and dated C.R.W. Nevinson 1916 in pencil, 151 x 203mm (sheet irregular, approximately 19.5 x 25cm), slightly stained and surface dirt, not laid down, unframed
'Returning to the Trenches' was conceived in 1914-15 and exists in the form of a painting, drawings, a woodcut that appeared in issue 2 of BLAST, and the present drypoint.
The drypoint was published in an edition of, probably, 75. The composition evokes both cubism and futurism: the soldiers are de-humanised, mere cogs in the war machine. This is war devoid of justification or a hint of glory. In late 1914 Nevinson drove military ambulances, transferring the wounded from battlefield dressing stations to the Friends' Ambulance Unit Hospital outside Dieppe. The experience resulted in a small number of prints of extraordinary originality, of which 'Returning to the Trenches' is the most arresting. The soldiers, a column of French Territorial Infantry (Poilus) march rapidly to their fate on the front line, north of Ypres. The print combines a powerful sense of dynamism with technical virtuosity. Areas of tonal variety contrast with lines of rich burr and velvety texture.
Source: Black (Jonathan) - C R W Nevinson The Complete Prints, pp.17-19, 118; illus p.18
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