Tank

Lithograph developed from original sketch of two tanks drawn at the Western Front. The sketch was completed as part of David Muirhead Bone's commission as a British official war artist. The largest depicted tank, positioned in the centre of the image, rises up over a trench and gives the machine a strong sculptural presence and sense of movement. The lithograph's uniform greyish colour and wiry lines are effectively used in this work to stress the hard metal armour used in this new machinery. The slits, track, and rhombus-like form and guns, which make up the severe mechanical aspects of tanks, are also emphasised by the heightened contrast of light and shadow. There is no sign of anything human in this work; it presents the viewer with an alien environment evoking the harsh conditions for those inside the tank as well as the bleak nature of trench warfare at the Western Front.