Description
Object description
image: A view across a flat agricultural landscape. Barrage balloons are lit by a dramatic evening sunset. On the
horizon factory chimneys send up thick vertical streams of smoke into the sky. In the foreground lies a narrow country road that curves off
into the distance.
Label
Apron screens came into use shortly before the end of the First World War in response to attacks by German Gotha
bombers on London. They consisted of three balloons, 500 yards apart, joined together by a heavy steel cable. No enemy aircraft were
actually caught in their nets but they did force enemy aircraft to fly higher, reducing their effectiveness as bombers and making them more
vulnerable to attack.
The possibility of a painting of the barrage balloon apron was raised by Charles Foulkes, secretary and curator of the Imperial War Museum,
after a visit to the Thames estuary in August 1918, and Dobson was suggested to paint it. 'A very interesting record will be the Balloon
Barrages which go up in the evening as a protection to Kynoch's Factory, on Canvey Island. . . and the most effective time would be Evening
or late sunset effect,' he wrote. Kynoch's were one the leading suppliers of ammunition and explosives during the war and an obvious target
for bombing.
Problems arose with the painting because the somewhat conventionally-minded Air Force committee did not approve of the style, although they
agreed that it was technically accurate. As a result, the idea for a picture from Dobson was dropped. An earlier commission with the
Ministry of Information had been terminated for similar reasons - 'I don't seem to have much luck with official work,' he
wrote.
History note
Imperial War Museum, Art Section commission, 1918
COMMISSIONED FROM THE ARTIST BY THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, 1918. ACCESSIONED IN JULY 1919.
VALUE OF COMMISSION £52.50
REFERENCE:
FIRST WORLD WAR, WAR ARTISTS ARCHIVE, FILE REF. ART/WA1/231
CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE ARTIST
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
F Dobson/18