The Sanitary Train

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: the City Museum (Amsterdam).

The plot of the picture is very similar to the artist’s previous war paintings. In this work, the admiration for the speed and power of military equipment is still seen, but the war takes on a completely different meaning in Severini’s interpretation. Inside the fast-racing train, the soldiers returning home are no longer full of determination and military aggression but wounded and lying in their beds. In this painting, we can clearly see the author’s awareness of all the burdens of the war, which depersonalizes and destroys people physically and mentally, turning them into the likeness of empty mannequins or soulless robots.