Stanley Spencer: Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing-Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916
IWM ART 2268
The painting represents a scene witnessed by Stanley Spencer during his service with the 68th Field Ambulance in Macedonia. It shows mule-drawn stretchers bearing wounded men to a dressing station in an old Greek church. Both animals and humans are watching the lifesaving efforts of surgeons in a makeshift operating theatre. Spencer saw it as a religious painting, writing, 'I meant it not a scene of horror but a scene of redemption'.
Educated at the Slade School of Art, Spencer was a young artist beginning to exhibit when the war interrupted his career. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in July 1915 and was posted to Macedonia. He later volunteered as an infantryman, although he was by no means a natural soldier.
1919, 1828 mm x 2184 mm