Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, A.R.A.

Drypoint printing with a delicate veil of tone to the sky, 1916, a good impression with burr, signed in pencil within the platemark beneath the image, on F. J. Head & Co. laid paper, with full margins, in good condition

Private Collection, from whom acquired by the present owners in the 1990s

Richard Ingleby, Jonathan Black, David Cohen and Gordon Cooke, C.R.W.Nevinson: The Twentieth Century, Merrell Holberton/IWM, London 2000, p.182
London, The Leicester Galleries at the Alpine Club Gallery, Nash and Nevinson in War and Peace, October – November 1977, Nevinson section cat.no.3
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939, January – June 2008, cat.no.18

A fine impression printing with burr. In good condition apart from slight light-staining, minor surface dirt to the margins, two old paper tabs attached at extreme upper edge of sheet recto
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This image is clearly related to Returning to the Trenches and once more takes the French infantry as its subject. Unusually for this period, Nevinson has moved his viewpoint away from a close proximity to the soldiers and widened the vista to show not just a group of individuals but a whole mass, their individuality stamped out within the column which moves to its next destination. The only figures who are differentiated are the mounted officers who ride alongside the column at intervals, but even they appear to be being absorbed into the mass.

Column on the March differs from its contemporaries in that we are starting to gain a sense of devastation in the landscape that we are crossing. Whilst in A Dawn, 1914 the streets show damage but not ruination, and in French Troops Resting the soldiers sit on grass beneath functioning telegraph poles, here they march across an empty land, the ground beside the road wet with recent rain, perhaps prefiguring the churned mud of the Western Front that is ahead for them.