Artillery

The work of art that really stood out to me the most is Artillery by the French artist Roger de la Fresnaye. The first thing you notice about this painting is the variety of common geometric shapes that the artist uses, most of them being squares, circles, and rectangles, to depict a very powerful image of warfare. He utilizes these shapes to create people, horses, and objects that the viewer can immediately recognize as men going into battle or to fight in a war. The shapes don’t just appear flat; they have dimension and weight and make the painting feel dense in a way.

The artist uses a lot of blacks, reds, and browns in this painting. The use of these dark colors makes this canvas feel gloomy and tense. The lack of bright colors really sets the mood and gives it more of a serious tone. One can tell that this isn’t a joyous occasion or celebration although we can see what appears to be a marching band waving the French flag and a drummer and a few trumpeters. Also, the way the artist paints one group of individuals in all black and the other group in blue tops with red pants can lead one, who knows nothing about this piece, to consider that these are possibly two opposing groups getting ready to engage in a conflict.

This piece drew me in mainly due to the fact that I knew instantly what was being represented. When I look at this painting, I feel sorrow for the many men that had to go to war at that time. Many of them had no choice but to leave their wives and children behind to go risk their lives at the battlefront. I can’t imagine how these men must’ve felt not knowing if they’ll make it back alive to see their families again. This painting shows how war was a common concern during that time and the artists’ portrayal of what going into battle was like.