Princess Elizabeth in Wartime

War Art Schemes of the First World War

Gassed; Gassed, 1919, by John Singer Sargent. One of the leading society portrait painters of his day, Sargent was commissioned to contribute the central painting for the Hall of Remembrance. Gassed is based on the scene at a dressing station as it took in casualties from a mustard gas attack on the Western Front in August 1918.

Gassed

art

Gassed, 1919, by John Singer Sargent. One of the leading society portrait painters of his day, Sargent was commissioned to contribute the central painting for the Hall of Remembrance. Gassed is based on the scene at a dressing station as it took in casualties from a mustard gas attack on the Western Front in August 1918.

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The war art schemes developed by the British government during the First World War were an unprecedented act of government sponsorship of the arts. As the schemes evolved, they ultimately explored every aspect of conflict, from the violence of...

The war art schemes developed by the British government during the First World War were an unprecedented act of government sponsorship of the arts. As the schemes evolved, they ultimately explored every aspect of conflict, from the violence of industrial warfare to hastened social and industrial change at home.

The first scheme was initiated in July 1916 by Wellington House, a government propaganda department. The intention was to provide eyewitness images to illustrate propaganda publications. In 1917 Wellington House merged with the newly established Department of Information. Amongst the artists commissioned at this stage were William Orpen, Paul Nash and C R W Nevinson.

The Imperial War Museum, established in 1917, was charged with collecting a wide variety of material documenting the war, including art. In addition to acquiring works produced under the Department of Information scheme, the museum commissioned its own artists.

In February 1918 the Department of Information became the Ministry of Information and established the British War Memorials Committee. This committee widened the scope of the war art scheme considerably by planning a Hall of Remembrance devoted to ‘fighting subjects, home subjects and the war at sea and in the air’. This was to be a record and a memorial to the Great War through paintings commissioned from the best and, on occasion, the most avant-garde British artists of the day, including Percy Wyndham Lewis, Stanley Spencer and John Singer Sargent. However, because of lack of funding after the war the Hall of Remembrance was never built, and the collection of paintings was given to the Imperial War Museum.

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  • We Are Making a New World, by Paul Nash

    art

    We Are Making a New World, by Paul Nash; We Are Making a New World, 1918, by Paul Nash. Nash joined the Artist's Rifles in 1917 before transferring to The Hampshire Regiment as a lieutenant. Following a successful exhibition of his war drawings in London in July 1917, Nash was commissioned as an official war artist and sent to Flanders in November. We are Making a New World is one of the most memorable images of the First World War. The setting is Inverness Copse, the scene of great German resistance during the British offensive of summer 1917. But the painting transcends mere representation of a place, as the image of the sun rising on a scene of total destruction mocks its title.

  • Paths of Glory, by C R W Nevinson

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    Paths of Glory, by C R W Nevinson; Paths of Glory, 1917, by C R W Nevinson. During the early years of the First World War, Nevinson's style was dominated by the abstraction of shapes promoted by Futurism. But as the war progressed he developed a far greater realism. The title of this painting is a quotation from 'Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard' by Thomas Gray.

  • A Battery Shelled, by Percy Wyndham Lewis

    art

    A Battery Shelled, by Percy Wyndham Lewis; A Battery Shelled, 1919, by Percy Wyndham Lewis. Wyndham Lewis was one of the most avant-garde British artists commissioned for the Hall of Remembrance. He was a founding member of the Vorticist group, an artistic and literary movement that celebrated the energy and violence of the modern machine age. Inspired by his experiences on the Western Front, A Battery Shelled depicts the effects of counter-battery artillery fire.

  • Travoys Arriving with Wounded, by Stanley Spencer

    art

    Travoys Arriving with Wounded, by Stanley Spencer; Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing-Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, 1919, by Stanley Spencer. In April 1918, while posted to Macedonia, Spencer was approached by the British War Memorials Committee to undertake a commission. The Army, however, refused to release Spencer to allow him to complete the commission. He was finally invalided out after contracting malaria in December 1918, and in January 1919 he began work on the commission, Travoys....

  • The Battle of the Somme, by Muirhead Bone

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    The Battle of the Somme, by Muirhead Bone; War Drawings by Muirhead Bone: The Battle of the Somme, 1918, by Muirhead Bone. Bone, a Scottish printmaker, was the first war artist to be commissioned by Wellington House. He arrived on the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Bone produced numerous drawings illustrating the well-organised military machinery supporting the battle.

  • War Drawings by Muirhead Bone

    art

    War Drawings by Muirhead Bone; War Drawings by Muirhead Bone: cover and contents page. War Drawings by Muirhead Bone was a portfolio of 60 lithographs published by the War Office in 1918. The portfolio includes scenes from the Western Front as well as naval subjects.