Caddell's Return from the Bush (1945)

In this painting one is called to see the desolation of war and also a primitive almost animalistic depiction of man through the depiction of natives. There is something eerie about the man looking out over the empty land perhaps the sticks are the remains of his village. The dark colors in the sky are foreboding. The viewer wonders, “Will the man take revenge?” One sees most in this work the empty desolation of the world. There is a strong sense of loss, in the space and emptiness of the work. The depiction in its colors presents a kind of grief-stricken desolation that echoes the desolation of war. The viewer can almost become lost in the work, seeing not what the man pointing is seeing ,but what the man standing silently looking out over empty space and desolation sees in the destruction of his world. The man ape-like gnawing on a stick in the foreground suggests the primitiveness of the people and of the scene. The viewer almost cannot help becoming one with the primitive man and the man silently contemplating the destruction, desolation, and nature (represented by the mountains and sky in the background) of his world.(Chap. 29-Art)