In 1917, C.R.W. Nevinson was appointed a war artist, and his style shifted from a modernist one to a more realist approach.

This image shows the bombed-out interior of a farm building in Boezinge, Belgium, just northwest of Ypres. Nevinson visited the town in 1914-1915, after it had been occupied by German forces. He first made a pastel of the scene, which was shown at Leicester Galleries in 1916, and then this drypoint, in order to reach a wider audience.

This drypoint demonstrates Nevinson¿s use of the Vorticist language to evoke the devastation of war. The foreground is dominated by the straight lines of fallen wooden struts and a pile of bricks. Additional damaged buildings can be seen through the partially destroyed wall. The structure of the scene demonstrates the artist’s interest in the inner structure of buildings torn apart by conflict evoked through heavy shadows, bold lines, and a limited tonal range. He often left the human figure out of his scenes in an effort to convey the distinctly unheroic aspect of war.