Wine of victory (German prisoners captured at Ypres)

Compassionate studies of wounded German prisoners distinguish Dyson’s war art. Wine of Victory, depicting lines of broken German prisoners coming in without escort at Ypres, is perhaps the most famous on this theme. Ypres in Belgium bore witness to some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War and 17,000 AIF soldiers were killed during the Third Ypres Offensive (July– November 1917). Dyson knew personally of the horrors experienced by the soldiers on both sides and was wounded twice. His friend Charles Bean, the official correspondent, wrote that no other official artist saw a tenth part as much of the real Western Front as did Will Dyson.