Reconstructing men from the operating table to the gallery
A study on the shifting context of male identity in Henry Tonks' pastel portraits of wounded soldiers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.10.193Keywords:
Henry Tonks, World War I, Masculinity, Facial Reconstruction, Wounded Soldiers, Battlefield Art, PastelAbstract
This study explores the changing interpretations of Henry Tonks' pastel drawings of disfigured soldiers from the aftermath of World War I. As the context evolved from a clinical environment to art historical, concerns developed not only regarding the reconstruction of the male body, but also the restoration of manhood after the First World War. The pre-War construction of masculinity, which turned man to machine, must also be evaluated in order to understand how Tonks’ images might reinstate the wounded men’s identities. The study examines the collective identity of British men during the First World War, focusing on those who were injured in battle. It compares Tonks’ pastels with other sources, in order to understand the changing and fragile definition of masculinity from the aftermath of war, and the reconstruction of manhood and identity of disfigured soldiers.
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