Three of ours down

Accession Number ART93359.009
Collection type Art
Measurement sheet: 17.6 x 25.5 cm; image: 14.5 x 21.6 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description watercolour, ink and wash on paper
Maker Kearton, William Frederick
Place made France
Date made c. 1916 - 1918
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Depicts three Australian soldiers standing in the right corner of the image on the edge of a verdant landscape. A large plume of smoke emanates from a wreckage nearby. In the sky, a zeppelin is in flames with two parachuters half way in their decent to the ground. Beyond this is a plane and another zeppelin, from which two other parachuters begin their decent to safety. The image reads from right to left like a storyboard of three stages of destruction. The three soldiers standing on the sideline could possibly be the survivors of the grounded aircraft. A road and telegraph poles lend the landscape an air of mundanity that contrasts with the scene of destruction in the sky.