Twentieth Century, c.1932-35 (oil on canvas)

This picture was painted in response to violent political movements in Europe in the 1930s. The huge central figure was based on Auguste Rodin's sculpture 'The Thinker'. It represents thinking society threatened by the bayonets and guns of the marching crowds. The picture is painted in a version of the fragmented Futurist style that Nevinson used for earlier war subjects. The original Futurist movement celebrated machines and violent energy. However, the chain linked to the machine cogwheel at the front of this picture suggests that machines shackle people, not free them;