Is Gassed by John Singer Sargent historically accurate?

Partly. Sargent saw this kind of scene himself, at a real dressing station near Arras. But: The tall, clean, golden-lit soldiers are arranged like a classical frieze or a religious procession, which makes the suffering look calm and dignified.

What book do schools assign about a mustard gas attack on the western front, world war i?

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Grades 9–12). A young German soldier's war, written by a veteran of the Western Front.

High school · AP European History · AP World History

A mustard gas attack on the Western Front, World War I: what the painting gets right

Your child is reading All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul Bäumer's gas attack is one of the book's most frightening scenes. Sargent saw the aftermath of one in 1918 and painted it 20 feet wide. Here is what he saw, and what he arranged.

Sargent's Gassed: a line of soldiers with bandaged eyes, each holding the shoulder of the man in front, walks past wounded men lying on the ground — John Singer Sargent, Gassed, 1919. Imperial War Museum, London. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source and licence

The book your child may be reading

Grades 9–12 · Common Core lists, grade 10
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
A young German soldier's war, written by a veteran of the Western Front.
Get the book on Amazon Grades & where it is assigned →

What really happened (August 1918)

Mustard gas, first used by Germany in 1917, burned skin, lungs and eyes. Many soldiers were blinded for days or weeks; most of them recovered their sight.

The British War Memorials Committee sent the American painter John Singer Sargent to the Western Front in July 1918 to paint the war.

On August 21, 1918, at Le Bac-du-Sud near Arras, he saw the aftermath of a German barrage: gassed men being led to a dressing station.

He finished the painting, 6.1 meters (20 feet) wide, in March 1919. It was voted picture of the year at the Royal Academy that summer and hangs in the Imperial War Museum in London.

What the painting shows

Gassed, by John Singer Sargent, 1919.

Eleven nearly life-size soldiers, most with bandaged eyes, walk in a line along a duckboard, each holding the shoulder of the man in front.
Dozens of gassed men lie on the ground around them.
In the background, men play football and biplanes fight in the evening sky.

What is true

Sargent saw this kind of scene himself, at a real dressing station near Arras.
Gassed men really were led in lines with their eyes bandaged.
The football game is not an invention for effect; life went on beside the wounded behind the lines.

What was changed or invented

The tall, clean, golden-lit soldiers are arranged like a classical frieze or a religious procession, which makes the suffering look calm and dignified.
The men are British. All Quiet on the Western Front is told by a German soldier, from the other side of the same front.

Short timeline

1914 · War begins; the Western Front settles into trenches.
Apr 1915 · First large chlorine gas attack, at Ypres.
Jul 1917 · Germany first uses mustard gas.
Aug 21, 1918 · Sargent sees gassed soldiers near Arras.
Nov 11, 1918 · Armistice.
1928–1929 · All Quiet on the Western Front is published.

Talk about it: 3 questions

For the dinner table or the classroom.

Sargent was paid by a British war memorials committee. How might that shape what he chose to show?
Remarque's soldiers are German, Sargent's are British. What do the two sides of the front have in common in the book and the painting?
Why do you think Sargent put a football game in the background?

Also worth reading

Grades 9–12
Private Peaceful
by Michael Morpurgo
Two English brothers in the trenches; shorter and gentler, a good first World War I novel.
Get the book on Amazon Grades & where it is assigned →
Grades 11–12
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's novel of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front.
Get the book on Amazon Grades & where it is assigned →

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