Painted in Singer's Fulham Road Studio, Gassed was originally intended as one of several 'super-paintings" to be lodged in a Hall of Remembrance, commemorating the 1914-1918 war. Sargent had witnessed the scene when British soldiers had been caught in a mustard gas attack on the Arras-Doulens Road August 1918. Although writers have seen the influence of contemporary photographs of the battlefield, and Rodin's Burghers of Calais, I always felt the presence of Bruegel's Blind Leading the Blind (Naples).