Sappers at work under Hill 60

David Bomberg was commissioned in 1917 by the Canadian War Memorial Fund to commemorate a company of Canadian soldiers who dug tunnels under the German trenches to lay explosives. Their activity was in preparation for a surprise offensive at Ypres on the German forces. The present drawing is one of a series of preparatory studies for a large-scale oil, Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa). Here, combining the pre-war influences of Cubism and Futurism, the geometric figures appear to merge with the complex structures used to support their work underground. With no spatial recession, the figures are only shown in fragments, emphasising the claustrophobic conditions experienced by the soldiers’ confinement.