American art was mostly pro-war, at least at first. None more so than Childe Hassam’s dreamy paintings of flags in New York City.
Some artists made actual propaganda, like this famous work by James Montgomery Flagg (modeled after the artist himself).
Some posters questioned the manhood of anyone who didn’t fight.
Others accused those who didn’t enlist of shirking their national duty.
Others portrayed the Germans as rampaging beasts.
George Bellows painted supposed German atrocities, based on a war report that turned out to be exaggerated.
Some artists protested the war—as with this cartoon, published with the caption "His Master: You’ve done very well. Now what is left of you can go back to work."
Another shows a skeleton measuring a man for a coffin, with the title, "Physically Fit."
One of the few American artists who saw war firsthand was Clagett Wilson, who portrayed the chaos in startling modern works like this, "Flower of Death—The Bursting of a Heavy Shell—Not as It Looks, but as It Feels and Sounds and Smells."
Another by Wilson shows a "Runner Through the Barrage, Bois de Belleau, Chateau-Thierry Sector; His Arm Shot Away, His Mind Gone."
Another by Wilson shows the "Symphony of Terror" comprised of grenades, gas, barbed wire, and machine guns.
Another by Wilson shows the "Dance of Death" of men caught in barbed wire.
Edward Steichen, the chief of the photographic section of the American Expeditionary Forces, captured the new era of aerial warfare.
Harvey Dunn portrayed the bleakness of trench and tank warfare.
George Harding's "Verdun Offensive" shows a chaos of artillery smoke, men, and, yes, horses.
John Singer Sargent’s large epic painting, "Gassed," shows a disturbing scene he saw near Ypres—the blinded casualties of a mustard gas attack.
It was only after that war that many realized how awful it was. This 1938 painting by John Steuart Curry shows a parade of soldiers already becoming skeletons.
