As They Saw It: Artists Witnessing War

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Yo Lo Vi (I Saw It) from The Disasters of War, 1810-1820, printed after 1863, etchings and aquatints on paper, bound.

Images have long been an accompaniment to war, whether to document fast-paced events in the heat of battle, to sway public opinion through propaganda, or to convey deep emotions like grief and fear. As They Saw It presents four centuries of war imagery from Europe and the United States, with an emphasis on the period 1820–1920. The artists featured in this exhibition were not simply bystanders. Many of them served as soldiers or had been expressly commissioned as war artists. To a great extent, artists’ nationality and backgrounds influenced the version of events they chose, or felt compelled, to present. Even those who worked far from the front lines were engaged in one side or the other of a battle of images—with representations of war playing a substantial role in how the parties to a conflict were perceived and how military and civilian experiences were interpreted, both in the moment and long afterward.