British official war artists were a select group of artists who were employed on contract, or commissioned to produce specific works during the First World War, the Second World War and select military actions in the post-war period.[1] Official war artists have been appointed by governments for information or propaganda purposes and to record events on the battlefield;[2] but there are many other types of war artist.

A war artist will have depicted some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how war shapes lives.[3] A war artist creates a visual account of war by showing its impact as men and women are shown waiting, preparing, fighting, suffering and celebrating.[4]

The works produced by war artists illustrate and record many aspects of war, and the individual's experience of war, whether allied or enemy, service or civilian, military or political, social or cultural. The rôle of the artist and his or her work embraces the causes, course and consequences of conflict and it has an essentially educational purpose.[3]

First World War

The Kensingtons at Laventie (1915)

Throughout the early years of the First World War, the British Government did not support an official war artist scheme. This began to change after artists who had served on the Western Front, such as Paul Nash and C. R. W. Nevinson exhibited paintings based on their experiences in France.[5] The public acclaim that Eric Kennington received when his painting The Kensingtons at Laventie was first exhibited in London in April 1916 prompted Charles Masterman, head of the British War Propaganda Bureau, acting on the advice of William Rothenstein, to appoint Muirhead Bone as Britain's first official war artist in May 1916. After Bone returned to England he was replaced by his brother-in-law, Francis Dodd, who had been working for the Manchester Guardian. In 1917 arrangements were made to send other artists to France including Kennington, Nash, Nevinson, William Orpen and William Rothenstein. John Lavery and others were recruited to paint pictures of the home front.[6]

Early in 1918, responsibility for the British war artists was passed to the British War Memorials Committee, BWMC, when the Department of Information became the Ministry of Information with Lord Beaverbrook as its Minister.[7] Rather than focus on short-term propaganda, the main aim of the BMWC was to create a lasting memorial to the war in the form of a national Hall of Remembrance. To this end younger artists, including Stanley Spencer and Wyndham Lewis, were commissioned by the BWMC to produce a series of large artworks, After the War, when the BWMC was wound up, this series of artworks, which included The Menin Road by Paul Nash and Gassed by John Singer Sargent, became part of the Imperial War Museum collection.[8]

Second World War

The British War Advisory Scheme (WAS) was administered by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, of the Ministry of Information. The project was devised and run by Kenneth Clark, Director of the National Gallery.[1] When the committee was dissolved in December 1945 its collection consisted of 5,570 works of art produced by over four hundred artists, who had been employed on either full-time contracts, short-term contracts or commissions for individual works.[9]

Selected artists

First World War

Second World War

Conflicts since the Second World War

Since the First World War and the Imperial War Museums' establishment of a national collection of Official War Art, the IWM has played a major role in Official War Artist commissioning. In the early 1970s, for the first time since the Second World War and the WAAC scheme, the IWM revived official commissioning with the establishment of the Art Commissions Committee (ACC) and by sending Ken Howard (artist) to cover the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This was soon followed by Linda Kitson's commission for the Falklands conflict, and has continued with many later projects, including Peter Howson's work in Bosnia and more recently Steve McQueen (director)'s work in Iraq, among others. Today the IWM's commissioning relates to all aspects of British and Commonwealth Forces' activities. Furthermore, not all commissioned artists are embedded within the military, some working with non-governmental organisations or independently.

IWM official war artists since 1979

Other war artists' schemes

Working with the British Government and the Armed Forces, traditionally the Official War Artists' schemes have been overseen by artists (including Muirhead Bone) and art historians (including Kenneth Clark and curators from the Imperial War Museums). Yet so too have the British Armed Forces discretely appointed their own war artists to represent operations on the Home Front and in conflicts abroad, whose commissions have been vitally important for keeping an up-to-date artist's impression and record of contemporary warfare.

During the Second World War, for example, the RAF commissioned artists to make portraits of its personnel, including Battle of Britain pilots, as well as of the machinery of war – the aircraft – not with the War Artists' Advisory Committee, but independently through the Air Ministry, using a distinct RAF fund. Away from Kenneth Clark's purview (and to his annoyance), this enabled the RAF freedom to choose artists and subjects they felt celebrated their achievements and priorities. Cuthbert Orde and William Rothenstein, among others, were commissioned under this scheme to produce portraits – a genre Kenneth Clark did not much rate as a strength in British painting at that time (although with the WAAC he had commissioned Eric Kennington to produce portrait pastels for the Air Ministry as Official War Artist).

During the Second World War there were many kinds of 'war artist', besides those officially commissioned through the WAAC – such as the Firemen Artists and the Civil Defence Artists, who exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy of Arts and elsewhere in London. Women artists, furthermore, were largely overlooked for WAAC commissions, comprising around 13 percent of all artists commissioned in the Second World War, while those who received commissions, including Laura Knight, mostly worked to short-term contracts. War subjects by women artists were nonetheless exhibited and collected throughout the war, and a number were selectively purchased by the WAAC, even if not commissioned. Largely, 'women's subjects' concerned the war effort, including nursing, their work as members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, or as Air Raid Precautions wardens, and a number of female artists depicted ruin scenes of the Blitz. Today such works are celebrated as important examples of British war art.

Works by artists outside of official commissioning schemes have been purchased for the nation as records of modern conflict, and these are wide-ranging and insightful, shedding light on a broader range of perspectives, including those of Service personnel who make art, and of emigre or refugee artists.

Today artists work with the British Armed Forces to ensure contemporary conflicts are covered – maintaining the tradition of the artist's record – while museums continue both to commission and purchase war art for the nation.

Drumcree, The Garvaghy Road July 1997 by David Rowlands, oil on canvas, 91 cm × 61 cm

Armed Forces and independent war artists

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Tolson, Roger. "A Common Cause: Britain's War Artists Scheme." Canadian War Museum, 2005.
  2. ↑ National Archives (UK), "'The Art of War,' Learn About the Art."
  3. 1 2 Imperial War Museum (IWM), About the Imperial War Museum Archived 5 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Canadian War Museum (CWM), "Australia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War," 2005.
  5. ↑ Art from the First World War. Imperial War Museums. 2008. ISBN 978-1-904897-98-9.
  6. ↑ Merion Harries; Susie Harries (1983). The War Artists, British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century. Michael Joseph, The Imperial War Museum & the Tate Gallery. ISBN 0-7181-2314-X.
  7. ↑ Ulrike Smalley. "How The British Government Sponsored The Arts In The First World War". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  8. ↑ Paul Gough (2010). A Terrible Beauty: British Artists in the First World War. Sansom and Company. ISBN 978-1-906593-00-1.
  9. ↑ National Portrait Gallery. "World War II: Official War Artists". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  10. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 [Art.IWM ART 4032]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 "Women at war: The female British artists who were written out of history". The Independent. 8 April 2011.
  12. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2013). "Works by David Bomberg". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  13. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2013). "Works by Muirhead Bone". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  14. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2018). "Works by Frank Brangwyn". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  15. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2018). "Works by Philip Connard". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  16. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2013). "Works by George Clausen". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  17. ↑ "Olive Edis". Iwmcollections.org.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  18. ↑ World War Pictures, Augustus John, war artist
  19. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "Gassed and Wounded [Art.IWM ART 4744]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  20. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "A Battery Shelled [Art.IWM ART 2747]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  21. ↑ "John Hodgson Lobley, 1878–1954". Art UK.
  22. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2013). "Works by Fortunino Matania". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 13 March 2013.; Italian artist working in Britain.
  23. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "'Over The Top'. 1st Artists' Rifles at Marcoing, 30th December 1917 [Art.IWM ART 1656]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  24. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "The Menin Road [Art.IWM ART 2242]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  25. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "Harvest, 1918 [Art.IWM ART 4663]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  26. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "Works by CJ Payne". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  27. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2013). "Works by Gerald Spencer Pryse". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  28. ↑ Imperial War Museum (2013). "Works by William Rothenstein". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  29. ↑ "Austin Spare, war artist". World-war-pictures.com. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  30. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing-Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, 1919 [Art.IWM ART 2268]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 12 November 2013.; also a war artist in World War II.
  31. ↑ "Edward Ardizzone" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  32. ↑ "Edward Bawden" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  33. ↑ "Eliot Hodgkin". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  34. ↑ "Refugees: Mother and Child". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  35. ↑ Imperial War Museum. "Shipbuilding on the Clyde: Bending the Keel Plate, 1943 [Art.IWM ART LD 3106]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  36. ↑ Owen, Nick (26 September 2011). "In our own Words: Soldiers share their thoughts on war in Afghanistan at Imperial War Museum". UK: Culture24. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  37. 1 2 3 "Contemporary War Artists: Introduction". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  38. ↑ "Contemporary War Artists: Peter Howson: Bosnia". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  39. ↑ "Contemporary War Artists: John Keane: The Gulf War". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  40. ↑ "Contemporary War Artists: Linda Kitson: The Falklands War". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  41. ↑ David Rowlands official website
  42. ↑ "David Rowlands - Artist Details and Print Database". www.military-art.com. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  43. ↑ "Women on the frontline: Female photojournalists' visions of conflict". The Guardian. 24 May 2014.
  • McCloskey, Barbara. (2005). Artists of World War II. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313321535; OCLC 475496457

Further reading

  • Gallatin, Albert Eugene. Art and the Great War. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1919).
  • Harrington, Peter. British Artists and War: The Face of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700–1914. (London: Greenhill, 1993). ISBN 1-85367-157-6
  • Haycock, David Boyd. "A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War". (London: Old Street Publishing).
  • Hichberger, J.W.M. (1988). Images of the Army: The Military in British Art 1815–1914. Manchester: University Press.
  • Knott, Richard, The Sketchbook War. The History Press, 2013.
  • Sillars, Stuart (1987). Art and Survival in First World War Britain. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • Holme, Charles. The war depicted by distinguished British artists (The Studio Ltd., 1918).
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