Bomberg received a commission from the Canadian War Memorial Fund in 1918, to make a large painting as a memorial to the Canadian Sappers in WW1. His first, vigorous painting 'Sappers at Work: A Canadian Tunnelling Company' was turned down as being insufficiently representational and Bomberg, encouraged by his wife Alice, then produced a more conventional, though powerful and even sinister painting echoing the sense of claustrophobia in the tunnel. This was completed swiftly in the summer of 1919 and met with the approval of the committee. The small studies he made along the way show his close observation of the daily activities of the Sappers, grimly shovelling in the darkness. This underground scene is perhaps akin to the ominous setting of Wilfred Owen's 'Strange Meeting', where two former enemies encounter each other,

'Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped

Through granites which titanic wars had groined'

The artist's family