The Ypres Salient at Night

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The Ypres Salient at Night is a 1918 watercolor by English artist Paul Nash. It shows a scene on the Western Front near Ypres, Belgium, based on a sketch he drew in 1917. The painting is in the Imperial War Museum in London. Paul Nash, born in 1889 in Kensington, served in the Artists Rifles and later as an officer in the Royal Hampshire Regiment. He went to Flanders in February 1917 but was sent back to London in May 1917, just before his unit was nearly wiped out at the Battle of Messines. He became an official war artist and returned to the Ypres Salient, shocked by the destruction he saw. In six weeks on the Front, he made about fifty drawings of muddy places, including this one, while working as an officially commissioned artist. The light in the painting comes from exploding star shells. The Ministry of Information later acquired the work.