The artwork, “Battle on the Bank of the Halha,” was created by Tsuguharu Foujita in 1941. This piece belongs to the Magic Realism art movement and falls under the genre of battle painting.
In the artwork, a group of soldiers is depicted amidst combat activity surrounding a military tank on a grassy plain. The scene captures the tense and chaotic atmosphere of battle, characterized by the soldiers’ dynamic and hurried movements as they interact with the tank. The sky above is clear with a shade of blue, contrasting with the dark smoke rising in the background, signifying the destruction and intensity of the conflict. The terrain around them shows the openness of the field, further emphasizing the starkness and isolation often felt in battle. The meticulous details in the soldiers’ uniforms and the tank’s structure demonstrate Foujita’s skill in blending realistic elements with a subtly surreal quality, quintessential to the Magic Realism movement.
