Description
Object description
image: A view across the desolate battlefield of Ypres. Flooded bomb craters are surrounded by small islands of mud. The
remnants of a row of trees still line a road that runs across the centre of the composition into the distance in the top right. To the left
is the ruins of a farmhouse, evidently once served by the road. The sky has a clear, almost iridescent quality, that illuminates the
landscape below.
Physical description
image: A view across the desolate battlefield of Ypres. Flooded bomb craters are surrounded by small islands of mud. The remnants of a row of trees still line a road that runs across the centre of the composition into the distance in the top right. To the left is the ruins of a farmhouse, evidently once served by the road. The sky has a clear, almost iridescent quality, that illuminates the landscape below.
It is an oil paint on canvas. It is unglazed. The frame is of painted and simple wood. No backboard is present.
Label
This is one of a series of paintings commissioned by the British War Memorial Committee set up by the Ministry of
Information early in 1918. The Committee developed a scheme to build a 'Great memorial gallery' devoted to 'fighting subjects, home
subjects and the war at sea and in the air'. The centre of the scheme was to be a coherent series of paintings based on the dimensions of
Uccello's 'Battle of San Romano' in the National Gallery (72 x 125 inches), this size being considered suitable for a commemorative battle
painting. While the commissions included some of the most avant-garde British artists of the time, the BWMC advisors saw the scheme placed
within the tradition of artistic patronage, influenced by models from the Renaissance. It was intended that both the art and the setting
would celebrate national ideals of heroism and sacrifice. The Hall of Remembrance was never completed and the collection was given to the
Imperial War Museum.
History note
Ministry of Information commission Scheme 1. Commission administration transferred to Imperial War
Museum
History note
Note: This artwork was relocated in August 1939 to a less vulnerable site outside London when the museum activated its evacuation plan.
Inscription
D.Y.Cameron