Combat Patrol

Harvey Dunn's wartime illustration captures three American soldiers advancing through a devastated town, their figures rendered in charcoal and pastel against crumbling architecture. The soldier in front fires his weapon, a yellow streak marking the muzzle flash, while his companions move through rubble-strewn streets. Dunn, a leading illustrator of the Great War, employed dramatic chiaroscuro and dynamic composition to convey the chaos and danger of modern combat. His work, created for public consumption during the conflict, established visual conventions for depicting military action that would influence subsequent generations of visual storytelling, from newspaper illustration to the emerging medium of sequential art.