This painting was part of an exhibition at the University of Cincinnati. It included 25 works of art by 25 artists, each created from one page describing imaginary artwork from the novel, “The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century Art/A Novel” by Matthew Kirkpatrick. This novel was published by Acre Books, which is a part of the University of Cincinnati.

The novel is told through a description of imaginary artworks. This was my selection from the novel. I was asked by the curator of the exhibition and publisher of the novel, Nicola Mason, to interpret it as I wished:

"One of the few female army doctors to serve in WWII, Kelly Constance Beal became known for her painting of atrocity. The Grave Diggers is among her most somber works; the title is clearly metaphorical, suggesting with its depiction of nurses treating amputees that these soldiers will not last long. Painted in the style of Vermeer and other seventeenth-century Dutch masters, the hospital room is claustrophobic and domestic. Notice the faces of the women treating the wounded, how they are turned away from the brutalized bodies, angled toward the sliver of light coming from the slim window above them. The painting on the wall of the hospital, a glorious Napoleonic battle scene in splendid color, contradicts the reality of Beal's subjects. The odd cockleshells on the floor on the lower right side of the canvas, next to a pair of empty boots, hint at the fleeting nature of life, but also repressed sexuality."