A world-leading 20th century collection

Mounds. A work of art by Paul Seawright in response to the war in Afghanistan. A series of earth mounds in a vast open landscape.
Mounds. Paul Seawright's response to the War in Afghanistan. © Paul Seawright (Art.IWM ART 16793)

The IWM collection features almost 20,000 works of art, documenting conflict since 1914 and representing a wide range of mediums, from photography to sculpture. 

Included in the collection are works created by artists under the British government war art schemes of the First and Second World Wars, including works by the likes of Sir William Orpen and John Singer Sargent. 

Throughout its history, IWM has also commissioned artwork. During the First World War, the Women’s Work Sub-Committee commissioned ten female artists to document women's roles during the conflict. IWM continues to commission new works from artists such as Steve McQueen and Paul Seawright, reflecting on conflicts including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.

Coming in 2023: The Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at IWM London will explore how artists, photographers and filmmakers together bear witness to, document and tell the story of conflict, and demonstrate how artistic interpretation can uniquely shape our understanding of war.

Discover the collection

  • Explore the full collection of IWM"s digitised artworks

    Full collection
  • A view of a large, sunlit crater blasted into white chalky soil. The remains of German barbed-wire defences in the distance are a dark rust-coloured pink. A German and a British steel helmet and the remains of a uniform lie on the edge of the crater in the foreground. The sky is covered in dense white cloud with blue patches visible at the top of the composition.

    View the works of Sir William Orpen, who was an official war artist during the First World War and also produced commissions for IWM.

    Sir William Orpen

  • See how artists responded to the Blitz in 1940-1941

    The Blitz
Second World War, Art And Design

10 Paintings of Wartime London

Kenneth Rowntree, Foreign Service-men in Hyde Park, Early Summer, 1940, 1940.
© IWM ART (LD 415)
Kenneth Rowntree, 'Foreign Service-men in Hyde Park, Early Summer' (1940).

London was transformed by the Second World War. Air raids tore up the very fabric of the city night after night, and by day its streets were filled with soldiers, both British and from overseas. Artists living and working in London captured this ever-changing landscape in beautiful paintings, 10 of which are featured here. 

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First World War

An unnaturally bright sun blazes over a landscape with a river. There is an aircraft flying over the desert in the lower right of the composition.
© IWM Art.IWM ART (4623)
First World War

Stunning Aerial Artwork Of The First World War

Brothers Sydney and Richard Carline were employed as official war artists by the Imperial War Museum during the First World War, each tasked with documenting aerial warfare. Between 1918 and 1920, the brothers produced dozens of artworks recording views over the Western Front, the Italian Front and the Middle East.

a Greek flour mill stands on a cliff in the right foreground overlooking a large
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 2451)
Gallipoli

This Able Seaman Produced Incredible Drawings Of The Gallipoli Campaign

On 18 March 1915, a powerful naval force of British and French ships failed spectacularly in an attempt to force its way through the Dardanelles and threaten the Turkish capital, Constantinople (Istanbul). A decision was therefore taken to supress the Dardanelles defences by landing soldiers on the Gallipoli peninsula before making another attempt.

Women's Canteen at Phoenix Works, Bradford 1918, by Flora Lion
© IWM ART (4434)
Women in Wartime

6 Stunning First World War Artworks By Women War Artists

The first British official war artists’ scheme was set up by the government in 1916. Although several female artists were approached either by the British War Memorials Committee or the Ministry of Information, none of them completed commissions for the official schemes.

Explore the interactive Hall of Remembrance

This 3D experience allows you to explore the Hall of Remembrance, a memorial gallery designed by the British architect Charles Holden. It was intended as a memorial to the Britons who gave their lives during the war and would display a set of remarkable paintings commissioned by the British Government toward the end of the war. But the project ran out of time and money and the Imperial War Museum became the custodian of the paintings and sculpture that had been produced.

Explore the Hall of Remembrance

Second World War

A Royal Air Force anniversary parade taking place directly outside Buckingham Palace. Columns of RAF personnel in blue uniform march from left to right. They are watched by fellow RAF personnel and British soldiers in the foreground and by a mixture of civilians and military personnel standing in front of the palace gates.
IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 3911)
Battle of Britain

7 Artworks Of The Battle Of Britain

As the Battle of Britain raged in the skies over Britain in the summer of 1940, a range of British artists were quick to record and interpret this vital event. Their work was commissioned or purchased by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), the body that oversaw the British official war art scheme of the Second World War.

Randolph Schwabe's painting of The Women’s Land Army and German Prisoners. Women working in hay fields.
Randolph Schwabe, The Women’s Land Army and German Prisoners, 1918 © IWM (Art.IWM ART 1179)
Second World War

Art in Exile

See 10 of the works selected by IWM for evacuation to safety before the start of the Second World War. 

 

 

The Wehrmacht, May 1945, by Edward Ardizzone.
© IWM Art.IWM ART LD 5436
Second World War

How War Artist Edward Ardizzone Showed The Human Side Of War

Edward Ardizzone (1900 - 1979) is one of the most enduringly popular of the artists commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) in the Second World War, as well as being one of the longest serving. 

D-Day

This War Artist Captured D-Day in Stunning Watercolours

Looking down the quayside following the D-Day landings, with military personnel and vehicles, including a bicycle. French Tricolores and Union Jacks are hanging from buildings. A rifle and grenades lie in the gutter.
© IWM Art.IWM ART LD (4466)

Anthony Gross was among the first artists to be commissioned as a British official war artist in the Second World War. He was also one of the longest serving. In 1944, Gross returned to Britain in time to witness the build-up to the momentous D-Day landings. 

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Art And Design, Second World War

Curator's Choice: Eric Ravilious

A view of five Spitfires on an airfield. The two Spitfires in the foreground stand side by side, with a brick wall between them.
© IWM Art.IWM ART LD 2125
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Conflict Post-1945

A series of figures, with only their heads and shoulders visible, are gathered together at a dockside with a warship recently returned from the Falklands looming over them in the background. There is a coffin covered with a British Union Jack flag amongst them, juxtaposed with the hands of some of the figures making victory signs. In the centre, a soldier and a woman kiss and embrace after being reunited. They are surrounded by the heads of eight other people.
© IWM Art.IWM ART (16248)
Art And Design

8 Powerful Works From Our Contemporary Art Collection

Since the mid 1970s IWM has collected and commissioned contemporary artists' personal, political and conceptual responses to conflict. This has resulted in a diverse and challenging collection of artwork, the highlights of which are brought together in a new book, Art from Contemporary Conflict.

Conrad Shawcross RA
Art And Design

Parallel Lives

IWM worked with six Royal Academicians to reveal how the IWM collections influence and impact their work. Looking at objects as diverse as aircraft to sound trumpets, and themes such as imprisonment, surveillance, terrorism and the nuclear threat of the 1960s, the resultant films demonstrate the breadth and vitality of the collection and the wide-ranging fascination it holds for artists working today.

kennardphillips
Contemporary conflict

kennardphillipps on Art and Activism

Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps began working together under the name kennardphillipps in 2002, collaborating to produce art that responded to the build up to and aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Become an IWM Member

IWM Membership

Help tell the stories that deserve to be heard by supporting us as a member. Uncover a host of benefits including free standard admission to Churchill War Rooms, HMS Belfast and IWM Duxford.

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