A favourite among visitors and the most requested image by researchers and publishers, the work endures as a lasting symbol of modern art in public service, and of the transformative conflict from which it came.
Ahead of its re-display, the much-loved First World War painting has undergone significant conservation work which has revitalised and transformed the viewing experience of the artwork. This includes varnish removal, remedial structural work, as well as conservation of the frame.
Monumental in scale, Gassed is different to anything that artist John Singer Sargent had produced before. It is also the largest painting in the museum’s collection and has been on near-constant display since it was first exhibited in 1919.
The painting was commissioned by the government’s British War Memorials Committee (BWMC), as the centrepiece of a newly imagined national memorial to the unprecedented experience and loss of the First World War.
John Singer Sargent’s painting 'Gassed' in the conservation studio with conservator Phil Young.
The scene for Gassed is the medical aftermath of a mustard gas attack on the Western Front in August 1918. A line of soldiers with bandaged eyes are led along by an orderly; each man holds the shoulder of the soldier in front. One soldier turns away from the viewer to vomit.
Section of John Singer Sargent Painting 'Gassed' showing one of the footballers in the distance, which developed with the cleaning of the artwork.
A football match plays on in the background, alluding to the routine nature of such attacks. Gassed depicts a scene rooted in the contemporary moment and the horror of poison gas, a new weapon of the First World War.
Following the conservation of Gassed, IWM worked with Factum Foundation to carry out high resolution imaging of the artwork. This imaging captured high resolution data of the painting, in 3D, colour and infrared. The capture of this data took one week, with Factum Foundation’s 3D scanners slowly, at a distance, working their way across the artwork. Because Gassed was out of its frame for conservation, this was the ideal time to produce an up to date image.
Accompanying the opening of Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries will be a new, fully illustrated IWM publication with detailed photography of the artwork. Featuring a contribution from Singer Sargent’s great nephew, Richard Ormond, and with commentary from IWM’s Head of Art Rebecca Newell.
The most famous painting of the First World War looks different now
In John Singer Sargent’s Gassed, IWM’s Head of Art Rebecca Newell traces the origins of this large and powerful painting in the final months of the First World War and celebrates the vibrancy and visual power of the work, revealed once again during recent conservation.
The book reflects on the challenges of creating and displaying a canvas of such size and the dramatic impact the work has had on generations of visitors to IWM.
Finally, it considers the painting’s enduring legacy in the context of art inspired by conflict – a legacy now secured for future generations.
The trench warfare of the Western Front encouraged the development of new weaponry to break the stalemate. Poison gas was one such development. The first significant gas attack occurred at Ypres in April 1915, when the Germans released clouds of poisonous chlorine.
A remarkable group of paintings was commissioned by the British government towards the end of the First World War as a memorial to the dead. They wanted to permanently display the paintings in a bespoke memorial gallery, known as the Hall of Remembrance, but this ambitious plan was never realised.
The art that emerged from the First World War provided a window into all corners of the conflict. We invited professional artist Gareth Reid, winner of Sky Arts' Portrait Artist of the Year, to visit IWM London to find out more about war artists and to produce several sketches in a reproduction trench, inspired by artists who worked near the front line.
