The Somme front

The work depicts the desolation of the battlefield emphasising the sombreness. Under a dull leaden sky the landscape is a mire of trenches and water-filled shell craters with a handful of broken trees. Through this terrain a small number of surviving soldiers pick their way towards two massive 60-pound howitzers stationed under camouflage nets.The silhouettes of two sixty pound howitzers under camouflage netting stand out as black symbols of power and destruction amongst the stark forms of the few remaining trees in this ruined land of death. This scene depicts what was once the outskirts of the French village of Combles. This drypoint was made in early 1917 when sketching was against wartime regulations and in many instances could be considered spying. Despite these restrictions McBey had succeeded in obtaining permission to spend his 'leave' in drawing at the front. There, though thwarted by rain, mud and the obviousl difficulties of transport he found the material for five plates including this powerful image. James McBey (1883-1959) was one of Britain's most successful etchers before the First World War. He was accepted for war service in January 1916 and worked in the printing section at the Army's Boulogne base. He became an official war artist in 1917 and joined the British Expeditionary Force in Egypt. This work was made by McBey before he was appointed an official war artist and the grim scene of the war blasted landscape remains one of the outstanding graphic memorials of the First World War.