Sketch for "To the Charge!" 1874

Curator: William Rimmer's "Sketch for 'To the Charge!'" is a swirling scene of conflict and death, painted with oil on canvas, currently residing here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels heavy, doesn't it? Like the air itself is thick with the dust of battle. The earth tones and hurried brushstrokes give it a raw, almost visceral quality. Curator: Rimmer was quite interested in anatomy, wouldn’t you say? Note the figures in the foreground; the defeated in the throes of death, so deliberately rendered. Editor: And the labor involved. Think of the pigments, perhaps even ground on site, the canvas stretched tight. War isn't just glory, it's the raw material of existence being reshaped. Curator: It's a dance with light and shadow, with glory and utter despair. I find myself wondering what exactly Rimmer aimed to convey. Editor: Well, all that making has a brutal purpose here. Perhaps Rimmer was commenting on the industrialization of war itself, the reduction of flesh and bone to mere resources. Curator: Perhaps, but it might also be about something deeply personal. I suppose we’ll never truly know what drove Rimmer, but maybe it is the tension between the two that makes it so compelling. Editor: Agreed. It makes you reflect on art's relationship to power and violence, and all the complex layers in-between.