Gassed ( painting ) Gassed is a very large oil painting completed in March 1919 by John Singer Sargent . It depicts the aftermath of a mustard gas attack during the First World War , with a line of wounded soldiers walking towards a dressing station . Sargent was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to document the war and visited the Western Front in July 1918 spending time with the Guards Division near Arras , and then with the American Expeditionary Forces near Ypres . The painting was finished in March 1919 and voted picture of the year by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1919 . It is now held by the Imperial War Museum . Painting details . The painting measures 231 . 0 x 611 . 1 cm ( 91 x 240½ in ; that is , 7½ by 20 feet ) . The composition includes a central group of eleven soldiers depicted nearly life - size . Nine wounded soldiers walk in a line , in three groups of three , along a duckboard towards a dressing station , suggested by the guy ropes to the right side of the picture . Their eyes are bandaged , blinded by the effect of the gas , so they are assisted by two medical orderlies . The line of tall , blonde soldiers form a naturalist allegorical frieze , with connotations of a religious procession . Many other dead or wounded soldiers lie around the central group , and a similar train of eight wounded , with two orderlies , advances in the background . Biplanes dogfight in the evening sky above , as a watery setting sun creates a pinkish yellow haze and burnishes the subjects with a golden light . In the background , the moon also rises , and uninjured men play football in blue and red shirts , seemingly unconcerned at the suffering all around them . History . In May 1918 , Sargent was one of several painters commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee of the British Ministry of Information to create a large painting for a planned Hall of Remembrance . The plan was a complement to the artworks commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund since 1916 at the instigation of Lord Beaverbrook who , by 1918 , was serving as the British Minister of Information . Other works were commissioned from Percy Wyndham Lewis , Paul Nash , Henry Lamb , John Nash and Stanley Spencer . The large scale of the works was inspired by Uccello ' s triptych " The Battle of San Romano " . The plan for a Hall of Remembrance decorated by large paintings was abandoned when the project was incorporated with that for Imperial War Museum . As an American painter , Sargent was asked to create a work embodying Anglo - American co - operation . Although he was 62 years old , he travelled to the Western Front in July 1918 , accompanied by Henry Tonks . He spent time with the Guards Division near Arras , and then with the American Expeditionary Forces near Ypres . He was determined to paint an epic work with many human figures , but struggled to find a situation with American and British figures in the same scene . On 11 September 1918 , Sargent wrote to Evan Charteris : The Ministry of Information expects an epic – and how can one do an epic without masses of men ? Excepting at night I have only seen three fine subjects with masses of men – one a harrowing sight , a field full of gassed and blindfolded men – another a train of trucks packed with " chair à cannon " – and another frequent sight a big road encumbered with troops and traffic , I daresay the latter , combining English and Americans , is the best thing to do , if it can be prevented from looking like going to the Derby . The " harrowing sight " referred to the aftermath of a German barrage that Sargent witnessed on 21 August 1918 , at Le Bac - du - Sud , between Arras and Doullens , in which mustard gas had been used against the advancing 99th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division and 8th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division of the British Army , during the Second Battle of Arras . Tonks described the experience in a letter from to Alfred Yockney on 19 March 1920 : ' After tea we heard that on the Doullens Road at the Corps dressing station at le Bac - du - sud there were a good many gassed cases , so we went there . The dressing station was situated on the road and consisted of a number of huts and a few tents . Gassed cases kept coming in , lead along in parties of about six just as Sargent has depicted them , by an orderly . They sat or lay down on the grass , there must have been several hundred , evidently suffering a great deal , chiefly I fancy from their eyes which were covered up by a piece of lint . . . Sargent was very struck by the scene and immediately made a lot of notes . ' The War Memorials Committee agreed to change the subject of the commission , and the painting was made at Sargeant ' s studio in Fulham in 1918 - 9 . Completion . The painting was completed in March 1919 . It was first displayed at the Royal Academy in London in 1919 . It was voted picture of the year by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1919 . The painting was not universally liked – E . M . Forster considered it too heroic . It is now held by the Imperial War Museum , along with several charcoal studies for the painting . Other charcoal sketches are held by the Corcoran Gallery of Art . A small 10½ x 27¼ in . ( 26 x 69 cm ) oil sketch , originally owned by Evan Charteris , was sold by Christie ' s in 2003 . It sold for £162 , 050 ( $ 267 , 869 ) . The painting provides a powerful testimony of the effects of chemical weapons , vividly described in Wilfred Owen ' s poem " Dulce et Decorum Est " . Mustard gas is a persistent vesicant gas , with effects that only become apparent several hours after exposure . It attacks the skin , eyes and mucous membranes , causing large skin blisters , blindness , choking and vomiting . Death can occur within two days , but suffering may be prolonged over several weeks . Sargent ' s painting refers to Bruegel ' s 1568 work " The Parable of the Blind " , with the blind leading the blind , It also alludes to Rodin ' s " Burghers of Calais " .