Generals of the First World War

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born in Florence in a family of expatriates from the United States . His childhood was spent in constant travels in Europe, during which Sargent traveled to Italy , France , Switzerland and Germany . Having received mainly a home education, in 1874 Sargent completed his studies at the Paris studio of the French painter Carolus-Duran , where he studied the works of Hals , Rembrandt , van Dyck and Reynolds . In 1876, Sargent visited America, and the following year exhibited his first painting at the Paris Salon . After traveling to Spain and Morocco in 1879-1880, he settled in Paris in 1884, and then moved to London . Although Sargent enjoyed great success as a skilled portrait painter, he subsequently refused all unnecessary orders, focusing mainly on landscapes and watercolors, as well as wall paintings in the public library and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts . Sargent constantly exhibited at the Royal Academy , of which he became an associate member in 1894, and a full member in 1897. Being a cosmopolitan and a bon vivant, Sargent lived at once in several countries and at the same time appreciated his American citizenship, once even giving up his knighthood so as not to lose it. Communicating with representatives of the social and political elite of America and Europe, Sargent painted rather flattering portraits of American presidents, British prime ministers, entrepreneurs, actresses and art dealers, “ gilded century aristocrats” and their families, whose boundless optimism was soon swept away by World War I the war ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

In December 1918, the South African financier Sir Abraham Bailey, the 1st Baronet Bailey , turned to Sargent, who wished to order a picture from him, which would immortalize the memory of the generals who commanded the units of the imperial and British armed forces during the recent war ^{[4] [5 ] ]} . At the same time, Bailey ordered two more other commemorative paintings - “ Statesmen of the First World War ” from James Guthrie and “ Naval Officers of the First World War ” from Arthur Stockdale Cope ^{[4] [6]} . Sargent, who had previously moved away from portraiture, initially rejected Bailey's offer, even despite requests from the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery in London . Thus, , Chairman of the Board of Trustees, noted in a letter to the artist dated December 17, 1918 ^[7] :

As a gift to the nation and the National Portrait Gallery, a proposal was made to paint paintings with three groups of the most prominent naval commanders, generals and statesmen of the empire in memory of their service during the Great War. This proposal of the Board of Trustees can be considered as the most important of the ever made and approved by the gallery, departing from its firm rule of refusing to accept portraits of living celebrities. The donor wished to invite three different artists to write these groups and left the choice of candidates to the will of our trustees. In the unanimous opinion of our colleagues, trustees, not a single artist can sufficiently implement such a project alone, and we ask on their behalf to find out if you give your consent, despite your well-known reluctance to continue portrait painting, to reconsider your a decision on this issue and thereby render service to the nation by accepting their proposal to write one of these groups. It is assumed that each of the naval and military groups should include about twenty, and the group of statesmen should include about fifteen figures depicted without a headdress, in connection with which their characteristic features can be fully displayed.

Original text

An offer has been made to have painted for presentation to the nation and as a gift to the National Portrait Gallery three groups of the most distinguished Naval Commanders, Military Commanders and Statesmen of the Empire as a commemoration of their services during the Great War. This offer the Trustees regard as the most important of its kind ever made to the Gallery and have, in its acceptance, waived their inflexible rule precluding the admission of portraits of living celebrities. The donor desires that three different artists should be invited to paint these groups and has left the nomination in the hands of our Trustees. As it is the unanimous opinion of our colleagues, the Trustees, that no artist is so pre-eminently qualified as yourself to ensure successful treatment of such a subject, we are requested to enquire on their behalf whether you would consent, notwithstanding your well- known reluctance to undertake further portrait painting, to reconsider your decision in this respect and render a national service by accepting their invitation to paint one of these groups. It is proposed that the naval and military groups should each contain about twenty and the statesmen's group about fifteen figures, portrayed without any head-dress so that their features may be fully revealed.

A few days later, Sargent sent Dillon a response letter that said: “Unfortunately, [...] due to current circumstances, I am not entitled to accept an order of such great importance and urgency” ^{[8] [9]} . These "circumstances" were orders for murals for the building of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston , the execution of which required the next two to three years abroad. On December 30, Lord Dillon sent a new letter to Sargent, in which he emphasized the historical importance of group portraits and urged him to reconsider his decision, assuring: "The trustees are ready to give you absolute freedom of creativity and choice, not constrained by any conditions." After that, a close friend and biographer of Sargent himself - , intervened in this situation, who in letters to the gallery director and Lord Dillon expressed his belief that the artist can indeed accept the order. Charteris suggested that if Sargent was freed from time constraints and helped him organize the posing of the heroes of the future picture, and also offered him at least £ 5,000, then an agreement could be reached that satisfied all parties ^{[4] [6] [8]} . In January 1919, Sargent succumbed to pressure and succumbed, informing Lord Dillon of the acceptance of the order in a letter, and in a correspondence with Charteris said: “Yes, I wrote to Lord Dillon and said that if the trustees contact me again, leaving me the freedom of choice of time, I’m happy to write an army group - “with joy”, to put it politely ” ^{[9] [10]} .

The list of officers to be portrayed in the picture was compiled by Charteris with the gallery trustee , and then approved by Baronet Bailey ^{[4] [6]} . The initial list included 25 people, but Bailey excluded three from it. Three that were removed from the list were General Ian Hamilton , accused of failing the Gallipoli campaign , as well as and Hugh Trenchard . At the same time, Bailey added the name of Sir ^{[11] [5] [6]} . At a later stage, the names of Sir Hubert Hoff and Sir Charles Monroe were excluded from the candidatures for the inclusion of their portraits ^[12] . As a result, 22 military leaders appeared on the final list ^[4] .

For unknown reasons, such prominent military leaders as Horace Smith-Dorrien , , , , , Percy Lake and Charles Townsend ; staff members - , , , , Ronald Charles Maxwell and ; the chiefs of the Imperial General Staff are , and Archibald Murray ; the chiefs of the army headquarters are Charles Harington , Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd , and Herbert Lawrence ; Royal Air Corps officers - and ; and of the Royal Tank Corps ^[6] .

Sargent rushed to fulfill the order with his inherent energy ^[13] . Through Milner, he contacted sitters and was able to begin preliminary work on the painting, which was interrupted in May 1919 due to his return to America to paint frescoes ^[4] . In March 1920, Sargent finished work on an equally huge picture called “ Poisoned by Gases ” (now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum ), for material for which he specially traveled to the Western Front in 1918 ^{[14] [15]} . Subsequently, perhaps Sargent considered the order for him to write “generals” as a chore, reporting in a letter to Charteris on May 12, 1920: “The generals loom before my eyes like a nightmare ... I curse God and man for being weak-willed promised to write them, because I have no ideas and I foresee a terrible failure ” ^{[10] [16]} . After returning to England in July 1920, Sargent began a thorough work on the painting. In August of that year, in his letter to Milner, he requested the final list of sitters and information on their current military rank in order to avoid any mistakes ^[17] . Later, in a letter to Milner dated September 8, 1920, Sargent informed: “Four generals have already posed for me, and several more have undertaken to come. Before leaving last year, General Monash and General Smuts visited me. ” ^[18]

Sargent apparently enjoyed writing individual sketches, but was worried about the prospect of uniting the generals into a whole group, expressing his thoughts about this in a letter to Mrs. Gardner in September 1920 - “my generals begin to converge, and I make sketches and sketches of each separately. Each of them is interesting in its own right, but ” ^[17] . He expressed the same concern about the composition of the picture in a letter to Guthrie ^[19] :

I returned a couple of months ago and thanks to Mr. Milner I caught a number of generals, and I find the writing of each of them very interesting, and the huge variety of types seems to promise some interest. But I'm still just collecting material and have not yet developed any plan for the picture as a whole. The idea that they could never gather in any one particular place prevents me from working - therefore, I am unable to come up with an interesting background and have to portray them all standing in the void.

Original text

I have been back a couple of months and thanks to Mr Milner have put salt on the tails of a certain number of generals and I find each one of them individually very interesting to do and the tremendous variety of types seems to give a promise of some sort of interest. But I am still merely collecting material and have not yet evolved any scheme of the picture as a whole. I am handicapped by the idea that they never could have been altogether in any particular place - so I feel debarred from any sort of interesting background and reduced to painting them all standing up in a vacuum.

The years 1919-1921 turned out to be a period of intense work on oil sketches for Sargent, although it is difficult to establish a detailed chronology of individual generals' visits to the artist. By this time one could also include pencil sketches of many figures with notes made by Sargent, in which he outlined possible future poses of sitters ^[20] . Most of the oil sketches have been preserved in various collections, and 17 drawings are stored in the National Portrait Gallery ^[4] .

From January to October 1921, Sargent was in America again and after returning to London made an attempt to finish the canvas, but he was prevented by winter with constant fogs and a lack of daylight - "these dark days slowed down the work on the painting." In addition, Sargent faced another problem: he did not have time to sketch some generals alive. To achieve the similarity of the figure in the picture with Sir , who became ill with the flu and was preparing to sail to New Zealand on the days when their meeting became possible, Sargent had to use his photographs in the newspapers. It is for this reason that Sargent portrayed Russell behind the other generals, which he explained to him in a personal letter ^[17] . Another hero of the picture, General Frederick Maud , after drinking contaminated milk, died of cholera in Baghdad ^[21] , and Luis Botha fell ill with a Spanish woman and died of a heart attack in Pretoria ^[22] . It is not known to the end what materials Sargent used when writing the face of Fashion, but the posthumous portrait of Botha he was made on the basis of sketches by Guthrie ^[17] . On this occasion, Sargent wrote to Milner: “Evan Charteris gave me a photo of Gotha's head written by Bota, which is very good ... The head turn and lighting are completely different from mine - but I hope to do something about it” ^[4] . Finally, in 1922, Sargent finished work on a gigantic horizontal-format painting ^{[4] [16]} . It was originally called "A few generals, "but then the name was changed to" Generals of the First World War ” ^[5] .

The picture is painted in oil on canvas, its dimensions are 299.7 × 528.3 cm ^[4] . Sargent's work was the first painting to some extent reflecting the hierarchy of the British generals in terms of the reputation of military leaders ^[5] . The canvas depicts 22 of the approximately 1,500 brigadier major generals, lieutenant generals, generals and field marshals who served in the imperial and British armed forces during the First World War ^[6] . Unlike Cope and Guthrie, who naturally depicted their heroes - admirals and statesmen, respectively - in movement and lively conversation with each other, Sargent decided to abandon this approach ^[13] . Faceless and “cold” generals stand in continuous formation, and their heads are on the same level, not standing out in any way - twenty-two frowning or smiling faces, almost as many mustaches, forty-two eyes, with a few exceptions, looking straight ahead. The background of the picture is the architectural forms of brown neutral tones - corrugated columns at the large bases of the classic order , almost certainly generated by the imagination of the artist himself. All the generals are dressed in a khaki uniform with dozens of belts and crossed belts, buckles and shiny buttons, lots of medals and insignias; on their feet are breeches and boots with spurs, and ceremonial swords hang on their belts. In addition, field marshals hold silver marshal's batons in their hands ^{[13] [23] [9] [4]} .

According to art critic , the plot of the picture can be considered monotonous and devoid of fantasy in terms of realistic composition, but in this case, realism did not matter to Sargent. The website of the National Portrait Gallery writes about the painting as "effective" in fulfilling the task of creating a collective image of the military leadership. The same site compares generals with a set of puppets waiting for someone to pull them by the strings, and Charteris described them as a choir preparing to enter the stage. As expected, there is not a single officer in the picture whose service was not successful. In accordance with the army hierarchy, in the center are two commanders in chief on the Western Front - John French on the right and his successor, Douglas Haig , on the left. To their right are the commanders of the Western Front, among which stands out the tall figure of Sir Henry Wilson , who did not achieve the highest command post, but constantly intrigued against the commanders-in-chief. In the end, he became the chief of the Imperial General Staff and therefore must be standing behind or to the left of Haig, because William Robertson , Wilson's predecessor in this post, is right behind French. However, in this case, Wilson would have been exactly in the center of the picture and with his growth would have become a dominant figure on it - perhaps he himself would have liked it, but his colleagues would not have been happy ^{[13] [23] [9] [4]} .

All depicted in the picture reached the rank of at least lieutenant general, and most of them commanded armies or army corps, with the exception of two divisional commanders - Major General and Major General . The generals are mostly English, but there are also representatives of the dominions of the British Empire: Field Marshal Smuts , General Botha and Major General Lukin from South Africa , Generals Curry and Dobell from Canada , General Monash from Australia , Major General Russell from New Zealand ^[6] .

From left to right ^{[4] [6]} :

1. Field Marshal William Bidwood, 1st Viscount Bidwood - commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (1914–1916) and 5th Army (1918);
2. Field Marshal Ian Smuts - Commander of the Imperial Forces in East Africa (1916);
3. General Louis Botha - Commander of the Imperial Forces in South West Africa (1914-1916);
4. Field Marshal Julian Bing, 1st Viscount Vimy - Commander (1917-1918);
5. General Henry Rawlinson - Commander (1916-1918);
6. Major General - commander of the (1915-1916) and the (1916-1918);
7. General Sir John Monash - Commander of the (1917-1918);
8. General - Commander (1917);
9. Field Marshal George Milne, 1st Baron Milne - commander of the British forces in Thessaloniki (1916-1918);
10. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet Wilson - Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1918);
11. Major General Sir - commander of the New Zealand Division (1916-1918);
12. Field Marshal Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer - Commander (1915-1917, 1918);
13. General Sir - (1912-1918)
14. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig - Commander of the British Expeditionary Force in France (1916-1918);
15. Field Marshal John French, 1st Earl of Ypres - Commander of the British Expeditionary Force in France (1914-1915);
16. Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet Robertson - Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1915-1918);
17. Lieutenant General Frederick Maud - commander of the British forces in Mesopotamia (1916-1917);
18. Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby - commander of the 3rd Army (1916-1917) and the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the Middle East (1917-1919);
19. Lt. Gen. Sir - commander of the British Forces in Mesopotamia (1917-1918);
20. General Sir Arthur Curry - Commander of the Canadian Corps (1917-1918);
21. Field Marshal Rudolf Lambert, 10th Earl of Caven - Commander of the 10th (Italian) Army (1918);
22. General Sir Charles Dobell - Commander of the British Forces in Cameroon (1914-1916) and the Middle East (1917);

In 1922, the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, where it received restrained criticism, sometimes echoing with doubts that Sargent himself experienced in relation to this work ^[4] . The visual series in which the line of military leaders is framed by columns is characterized as an artistic embodiment of the idea of ​​generals as the "pillars" of the Empire. At the same time, according to the artist himself, these pillars “stand in the void”, and, according to critics, their forward-looking eyes are empty and devoid of confident or visionary expression. The heroes of the picture look preoccupied only with themselves and the importance of posing for the portrait, not suspecting the existence of a neighbor, a sense of cooperation and the spirit of camaraderie ^[23] . It is noted that the "Generals of the First World War", like " Poisoned by Gases ", are filled with the symbolism of death. While the earlier picture depicts defenseless gas-poisoned soldiers who were blinded by the irresponsibility of the command that sent them to the "slaughter", the generals' gaze at the same time on the second picture indicates that they are "blind", despite the they have eyes, and, as the ancient seer Tiresias prophesied in the tragedy of Sophocles “ Oedipus the King ”, “you are sighted - and you do not see your evil” ^{[24] [25] [K 1]} . The former director of the National Portrait Gallery described Generals as a “still life with boots” ^[27] . In general, regarding the composition of Sargent's work, journalist of The Times wrote ^[4] :

Mr. Sargent just made several portraits for us in one frame; and we cannot help but feel that these generals never came together in such a way that they should be separated from each other and placed in their own frames. Of course, the heads are written in high quality; large relief columns on their bases are also impressive; the artist seems to have shown more interest in them than in his generals; but the red buttonholes with ribbons and two rods seemed to cause difficulties for him; they became simple spots in the picture, and not a means of turning it into a single whole. This, of course, is an interesting set of images, free from all vulgarity and pretense; but unfortunately this is not a picture.

Original text

Mr Sargent has merely given us a number of portraits in one frame; and we cannot but feel that these generals never were so gathered together, that they ought to be divided from each other and framed separately. There are, of course, heads finely painted; and the great fluted pillars at the side, with their bases, are impressive; the artist seems to have been more interested in them than in his generals; but the red tabs and the ribbons and the two batons seem to have troubled him; they are mere specks in the picture and not a means of pulling it together. It is, of course, an interesting collection of paintings, free from all vulgarity and pretence; but it is, unfortunately, not a picture.

For each picture, including the work of Sargent, Bailey paid artists £ 5,000 and donated all three paintings as a gift to the National Portrait Gallery in London ^[4] . A gilded frame characterized by simplicity with a wide central frieze, moldings bounded on the outside and inside, was made for painting at the CM May & Son family enterprise, which soon afterwards stopped trading ^[28] .

• Генералы Первой мировой войны (unspecified) . Национальная портретная галерея .
• Генералы Первой мировой войны (unspecified) . .