This is a video about the restoration of a Singer Sargent painting of the aftermath of a WWI gas attack. What strikes me is that they sent Sargent to the front lines during the war, the British *government* did this -- in part as part of their propaganda effort, no doubt, but also out of some earnest notion of recording history.
A idea that it's important for artists to see history & record it. (and in this case it worked IMO)
Can't imagine anything like this now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqZjqi1RVdE
