Sickert painted The integrity of Belgium as a tribute to the courage of the Belgians in the defence of Liège, and sold it to raise money for the Belgian Relief Fund. When it was displayed in the Royal Academy, London, in 1915, it was described as being a realistic battle image, showing: ‘the land far stretched to the horizon, the mists rising from the ground; in the foreground is a soldier leading the attack; to the left are faintly discerned the ranks of resolute Belgians’. (The Sunday Times, January 17, 1915)  Sickert never visited the front, and painted the work in his studio in London.