Merry-Go-Round
- Artist: Mark Gertler
- Date: 1916
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1892 x 1422 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Merry-Go-Round” by Mark Gertler, painted in 1916. Gertler was a conscientious objector during the First World War, and that tension comes through in this canvas. The picture shows men and women frozen on a carousel, their mouths open as if shouting silently. The endless spin of the ride mirrors the relentless march of war. It’s a grim parody of a fairground attraction, turning a scene of leisure into a haunting allegory of the military machine.
The scene likely sprang from a fair on Hampstead Heath, where Gertler lived, that was held for wounded soldiers. He’d watched the crowds, the bright uniforms, and the clatter of the ride, and he turned that imagery into a stark critique of the war’s brutality. In the painting the figures are stiff, almost doll‑like, their faces contorted in a collective scream. Gertler’s own refusal to fight is echoed in their frozen terror.
The work was shown at the London Group in 1917, where it shocked viewers but was dismissed as decorative. Today it’s seen as a powerful, almost surreal statement on the horrors of war, captured in oil on canvas.
See it in person
Merry-Go-Round is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
