The Kensingtons at Laventie
| The Kensingtons at Laventie | |
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_(Art.IWM_ART_15661).jpg) |
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| Artist | Eric Kennington |
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Oil on glass |
| Dimensions | 139.7 cm × 152.4 cm (55.0 in × 60.0 in) |
| Location | Imperial War Museum, London |
| Website | Art. IWM ART 15661 |
The Kensingtons at Laventie is a large oil painting on glass by Eric Kennington completed in 1915 that depicts a First World War platoon of British troops. The group depicted was Kennington's own infantry platoon; Platoon No 7, C Company, the 1/13th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Kensington), who were commonly known as the Kensingtons. Kennington completed the painting having been invalided out of the British Army due to wounds suffered on the Western Front in early 1915.
The painting is Kennington's most famous work. It has been described as "one of the iconic images of the First World War", and is held by the Imperial War Museum. When it was first exhibited in 1916, the painting had a large impact and hastened the establishment of an official British scheme for war artists.
On 6 August 1914, days after the outbreak of the First World War, Kennington enlisted with the 1/13th (Kensington) Battalion of the London Regiment, as their recruiting office was the nearest one to his London studio. After several months of training in England, he fought with his battalion on the Western Front from November 1914, but was wounded in January 1915. One toe of Kennington's left foot was amputated, and he was fortunate not to lose a foot due to a subsequent infection. He spent four months in hospital in London and Liverpool before being discharged as unfit for further service in June 1915. After his convalescence, he spent six months painting The Kensingtons at Laventie.
During his few months of active service before he was wounded, Kennington's unit suffered 127 casualties, approximately 20 per cent of its original strength; by the time he completed the painting, 90 per cent of the 700 soldiers who arrived in France with the battalion in late 1914 had been killed or wounded.
The Kensingtons spent the extremely cold winter of 1914 in the front-line trenches forward of the village of Laventie in the Pas-de-Calais. Their trenches were poorly built and frequently under artillery fire. The painting depicts a moment when the platoon, having spent four days and nights in a forward fire trench, have made their way through a flooded communications trench to the ruined village of Laventie. The men are waiting for the order to 'fall in' for the 5 mile march to an overnight billet outside shelling range.
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