This is an etched version of a painting Dix made in 1920. At this time he was painting in a satirical manner, and war-wounded soldiers feature in many of his works. Although the injuries of the men are exaggerated, injured soldiers would have been commonly seen in everyday life. Whilst shocking and repulsive, the depictions were based on fact. Dix was influenced by his own experiences of trench warfare and by photographs of horrific facial injuries published by the left-wing press to dispel myths about the glory of war. Dix’s black humour is evident in the grotesque appearances of the men and the way that their legs are indistinguishable from the furniture. Yet in spite of this the men are simply getting on with their lives as normally as they can.