Hall of Remembrance

In 1918, the British War Memorials Committee of the Ministry of Information developed a scheme to create a Hall of Remembrance.

The central focus was a series of oil paintings depicting all aspects of the war effort. Some of the most avant-garde British artists of the time were commissioned, but the paintings were to be traditional in format – their sizes based on the Renaissance artist Uccello’s Battle of San Romano.

The scheme incorporated plans for a large building to house the huge canvases in suitable surroundings. Both the art and the setting were intended to celebrate national ideals of heroism and sacrifice. But the Hall of Remembrance was never completed, and the collection of paintings was given to the newly founded Imperial War Museum.

Visitors to Imperial War Museum London will be able to learn more about the Hall of Remembrance through a display in In Memoriam.

Explore Hall of Remembrance Paintings

John Singer Sargent: Gassed

Percy Wyndham Lewis: A Battery Shelled

Paul Nash: The Menin Road

Henry Lamb Irish Troops in the Judaean Hills Surprised by a Turkish Bombardment

John Nash Oppy Wood

Stanley Spencer Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing-Station At Smol, Macedonia

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