Fatalist

Depicts two soldiers, one ducking and crouching to the ground in the wake of a shell burst behind him, while the other remains upright and walking. Both men are carrying full kits and wear expressions of horror and fear. Will Dyson was the first Australian official war artist to visit the front during the First World War, travelling to France in December 1916, remaining there until May 1917, making records of the Australian involvement in the war. He was formally appointed as an official war artist, attached to the AIF, in May 1917, working in France and London throughout the war. His commission was terminated in March 1920. This image was reproduced in 'Australia at War: Drawings at the Front'(London, 1918, p.45) with the following caption; '....The fatalist is born not made. The growing strain of the game is not producing more fatalists if ducking under shell fire is a proof of an absence of fatalism. For many who never ducked are now ducking, whether from wisdom or war strain they are taking this instinctive precaution...he can't prevent the 'whiz-bangs' and the 'five-nines' but he can defy them... As though he were to say 'If you are going to hit me, you swine, you will hit me, but you can't stop me calling you bastard while you are doing it'. '