''La Mitrailleuse'' is a painting by British

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

artist

Christopher Nevinson Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initial ...

, made in 1915 while he was on honeymoon leave from service as an ambulance driver with the

RAMC The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

on the Western Front in the First World War. In an article in ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation sin ...

'' in 1916, artist

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

called the work "the most authoritative and concentrated utterance on the war in the history of painting". ''Mitrailleuse'' is the French word for machine gun, and originated from the mid-19th century French

volley gun A volley gun is a gun with multiple single-shot gun barrel, barrels that shoot projectiles in volley fire, either simultaneously or in succession. Although capable of unleashing intense firepower, volley guns differ from modern machine guns in ...

, the

mitrailleuse A mitrailleuse (; from French ''mitraille'', "grapeshot") is a type of volley gun with barrels of rifle calibre that can fire either all rounds at once or in rapid succession. The earliest true mitrailleuse was invented in 1851 by Belgian Army cap ...

. The painting shows three soldiers in the trenches wearing metal Adrian helmets, one firing a machine gun. A fourth soldier lies dead beside them. Around them are wooden beams and barbed wire. The subjects are abstracted into angular geometric blocks of colour, becoming dehumanised components in a machine of death. Nevinson later wrote: "To me the soldier going to be dominated by the machine ... I was the first man to express this feeling on canvas." The painting measures . It was exhibited at the

Grafton Galleries The Grafton Galleries, often referred to as the Grafton Gallery, was an art gallery in Mayfair, London. The French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel showed the first major exhibition in Britain of Impressionist paintings there in 1905. Roger Fry' ...

and

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

in 1916, and donated to the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

by the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

in 1917. It is currently exhibited at the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

References

''La Mitrailleuse''
Tate Gallery
''La Mitrailleuse'': catalogue entry
Tate Gallery
''Dynamic of Destruction : Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War''
Professor Alan Kramer, p.170-172
''The Future of War: The Re-Enchantment of War in the Twenty-First Century''
Christopher Coker, p.64 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitrailleuse Futurist paintings 1915 paintings Paintings by Christopher R. W. Nevinson Collection of the Tate galleries