One of Burra's most powerful and disturbing drawings, Grotesque Figures is a mediation on the devastating effect of war on all aspects of life. The church spire is broken, the tree's branches have been shattered and the figures have been torn apart. The mutilated bodies prompt a visual parallel between the severed spire of the church and the missing human limbs, evoking pathos and a sense of helplessness. Perhaps the most shocking element, however, is the head to the right of the painting. Clearly debilitated by the atrocities of war, the face appears to have been stripped of many of its most human features. The eyes are blind or rolling in the head, the nasal area more clearly reminiscent of a skull than any living being. Most startlingly, the fixed, almost maniacal grin removes all sense of identification with the character and replaces empathy with a grotesque impression more akin to horror and revulsion. The church depicted is probably that of Albert-on-the-Somme, which became famous as a visual icon of the First World War when its statue of the Golden Virgin was dislodged from the top of the tower during bombing in 1916.