Dunn, Harvey Thomas - The Tanks at Seishprey - ca. 1918 - T-Shirt

Harvey Dunn's charcoal drawing shows infantry advancing through long grass past a damaged tank and drifting smoke.

Visual Elements & Composition

Grey smoke dominates the drawing, with charcoal black and pale ochre grass filling most of the field. A rifleman on the left advances with his bayonet fixed, and a helmeted soldier stands in the foreground with his rifle held low. Figures lie in the grass in the middle distance. Beyond them, a squat tank with a rounded turret and a tilted hull sits near a ridge, behind a line of stakes, wire and bare trees. Small touches of rust orange appear in the foreground, and the title and the artist's signature sit in the lower margin.

Meaning & Symbolism

The drawing records the German attack on Seicheprey, a village in Lorraine, in April 1918, when American units fought in one of the first sustained engagements of the United States Army in the war. Dunn, an American illustrator who studied under Howard Pyle, made this work around 1918 as part of his battle subjects of that period. The tank is not a symbol of triumph here. Its damaged hull, the fallen men and the smoke show a confused and costly fight in which armour, infantry and ground were tangled together.

Wearing The Tanks at Seicheprey

A tee moves with the body, so the scene shifts as the wearer walks, with the advancing line and the smoky ridge crossing the chest and shoulders. The drawing's loose charcoal masses read clearly at a distance and reward a closer look at the individual figures, which suits a shirt that is seen from across a room and then up close.