British official war artists
Encyclopedia
British official war artists were a select group of artists who were employed on contract, or commissioned to produce specific works during the First World War, the Second World War and select military actions in the post-war period. Official war artists have been appointed by governments for information or propaganda purposes and to record events on the battlefield; but there are many other types of war artist.

A war artist
War artist
A war artist depicts some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how "war shapes lives." War artists have explored a visual and sensory dimension of war which is often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.- Definition and context:A...

 will have depicted some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how war shapes lives. A war artist creates a visual account of war by showing its impact as men and women are shown waiting, preparing, fighting, suffering, celebrating,

The works produced by war artists illustrate and record many aspects of war, and the individual's experience of war, whether allied or enemy, service or civilian, military or political, social or cultural. The rôle of the artist and his work embraces the causes, course and consequences of conflict and it has an essentially educational purpose.

First World War

The British Expeditionary Forces in Europe included artists whose work was exhibited at the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...

 after the end of hostilities.

After the outbreak of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Charles Masterman
Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman
Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman PC was a British Liberal Party politician and journalist. He was distantly related to the Gurney family of Norfolk...

, head of the British War Propaganda Bureau
Wellington House
Wellington House is the more common name for Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, which operated during World War I from Wellington House, a building located in Buckingham Gate, London, which was the headquarters of the National Insurance Commission before the War...

 and acting on the advice of William Rothenstein
William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...

, appointed Muirhead Bone
Muirhead Bone
Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish etcher, drypoint and watercolour artist.The son of a printer, Bone was born in Glasgow and trained initially as an architect, later going on to study art at Glasgow School of Art. He began printmaking in 1898, and although his first known print was a lithograph, he...

 as Britain's first official war artist in May 1916. After Bone returned to England he was replaced by his brother-in-law, Francis Dodd
Francis Dodd
Francis Edgar Dodd RA was a notable British portrait and landscape artist and printmaker.Born in Holyhead, north Wales, the son of a Wesleyan minister, Dodd trained at the Glasgow School of Art, winning the Haldene Scholarship in 1893 and travelling around France, Italy and later Spain...

, who had been working for the Manchester Guardian. In 1917 arrangements were made to send other artists to France including Eric Kennington
Eric Kennington
Eric Henri Kennington RA was an English Sculptor, artist and illustrator, and an official war artist in both World Wars.-Early life:...

, William Orpen
William Orpen
Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, KBE, RA, RHA was an Irish portrait painter, who worked mainly in London...

, Paul Nash
Paul Nash (artist)
Paul Nash was a British landscape painter, surrealist and war artist, as well as a book-illustrator, writer and designer of applied art. He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.-Early life:...

, Christopher R. W. Nevinson
Christopher R. W. Nevinson
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was a British figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer. He is often referred to by his initials C. R. W...

 and William Rothenstein
William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...

. John Lavery
John Lavery
Sir John Lavery was an Irish painter best known for his portraits.Belfast-born John Lavery attended the Haldane Academy, in Glasgow, in the 1870s and the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1880s. He returned to Glasgow and was associated with the Glasgow School...

 was recruited to paint pictures of the home front. Nash later complained about the strict control maintained by the Bureau over the official subject matter, saying "I am no longer an artist. I am an artist who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on forever. Feeble, inarticulate will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth and may it burn their lousy souls."

Second World War

The British War Advisory Scheme (WAS) was administered by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) of the Ministry of Information. The project was devised Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians of his generation...

, Director of the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...

. He was the WAAC chair; and he is credited with having established the WAS.

There was a general appreciation of the need to develop what "the camera cannot interpret." The government recognized that "a war so epic in its scope by land, sea and air, and so detailed and complex in its mechanism, requires interpreting [by artists] as well as recording."

First World War

  • Anna Airy
    Anna Airy
    Anna Airy was an oil painter, pastel artist and etcher, working in Britain.She was born in Greenwich, London, daughter of engineer Wilfrid Airy and Anna née Listing, and granddaughter of Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy....

    , (1882–1964)
  • David Bomberg
    David Bomberg
    David Garshen Bomberg was an English painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys.Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks, and which included Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer, C.R.W. Nevinson and Dora Carrington...

    , 1890–1957).
  • Muirhead Bone
    Muirhead Bone
    Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish etcher, drypoint and watercolour artist.The son of a printer, Bone was born in Glasgow and trained initially as an architect, later going on to study art at Glasgow School of Art. He began printmaking in 1898, and although his first known print was a lithograph, he...

    , 1876–1953.
  • Frank Brangwyn
    Frank Brangwyn
    Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.- Biography :...

    , 1867–1956.
  • George Clausen
    George Clausen
    Sir George Clausen RA , was an artist working in oil and watercolour, etching, mezzotint, dry point and occasionally lithographs. He was knighted in 1927.-Biography:...

    , 1852–1944.
  • Olive Edis
    Olive Edis
    Olive Edis was a British photographer who was famous for autochrome phototographs and portrait photography and served as a war artist in World War I . Olive Edis was a daughter of Arthur Wellesley Edis.Professor ofgynaecology at UCH...

    , 1876–1955.
  • Adrian Hill
    Adrian Hill
    Adrian Hill was a British artist, author, pioneering Art Therapist, educator and broadcaster. He wrote many best-selling books about painting and drawing, and in the 1950s and early 1960s presented a BBC children's television program called Sketch Club.-Life and work:Adrian Keith Graham Hill was...

    , 1895–1977.
  • Francis Ernest Jackson
    Francis Ernest Jackson
    F. Ernest Jackson ARA was a British painter, draughtsman, poster designer and lithographer.-Background:Francis Ernest Jackson was born on 15 August 1872 in Huddersfield, the son of a printer. He was apprenticed as a lithographer, and later attended life-drawing classes at the Yorkshire College...

    , 1872–1945
  • Augustus John
    Augustus John
    Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....

    , 1878–1961.
  • Eric Kennington
    Eric Kennington
    Eric Henri Kennington RA was an English Sculptor, artist and illustrator, and an official war artist in both World Wars.-Early life:...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1888–1960.
  • Wyndham Lewis
    Wyndham Lewis
    Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...

    , 1882–1957.
  • John Hodgson Lobley
    John Hodgson Lobley
    John Hodgson Lobley was an English artist. He was born 28 November 1878 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and died in 1954. He is best known for his work as an official war artist for the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I.- Personal life:...

    , 1878-1954.
  • Fortunino Matania
    Fortunino Matania
    Chevalier Fortunino Matania was an Italian artist noted for his realistic portrayal of historical subjects, including nude women.-Life:...

  • John Nash
    John Nash (artist)
    John Northcote Nash CBE RA was a British painter of landscape and still-life, wood-engraver and illustrator, particularly of botanic works.-Biography:...

    , 1893–1977.
  • Paul Nash
    Paul Nash (artist)
    Paul Nash was a British landscape painter, surrealist and war artist, as well as a book-illustrator, writer and designer of applied art. He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.-Early life:...

    , 1889–1946.
  • Christopher Nevinson
    Christopher R. W. Nevinson
    Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was a British figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer. He is often referred to by his initials C. R. W...

  • Sir William Orpen
    William Orpen
    Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, KBE, RA, RHA was an Irish portrait painter, who worked mainly in London...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1878–1931;
  • William Rothenstein
    William Rothenstein
    Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...

    , 1872–1945.
  • Austin Spare, 1886–1956.
  • Gerald Spencer Pryse
    Gerald Spencer Pryse
    -Biography:Born at Ashton, he studied in London and Paris, and first won success at the Venice International Exhibition in 1907. In the same year, he joined the Fabian Society, and helped to found The Neolith, a periodical of literature and the fine arts; the journal was printed in lithography...

    , 1882–1956.
  • Snaffles
    Snaffles
    Charles "Snaffles" Johnson Payne was an English painter best known for his humorous work.- Style and subject matter :Snaffles specialised in water colours and drawings sold as prints which, at least initially, were hand coloured by the artist and his sisters...

     (Charles Johnson Payne)
  • Leonard Campbell Taylor
    Leonard Campbell Taylor
    Leonard Campbell Taylor was a British painter of mainly portraits and interiors in a traditional style. Among his patrons was the founding family of Courtaulds and the Courtauld Institute of Art....

    , 1874–1969

Second World War

  • Edward Ardizzone
    Edward Ardizzone
    Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE, RA was an English artist, writer and illustrator, chiefly of children's books.-Early life:...

     CBE
    Order of the British Empire
    The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1900–1979.
  • Edward Bawden
    Edward Bawden
    Edward Bawden, CBE, RA was a British painter, illustrator and graphic artist. He was also famous for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1903–1989.
  • Henry Carr
    Henry Carr
    Henry Carr is a former American track and field athlete who won two gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.-Early life:...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1894–1970.
  • Evelyn Mary Dunbar
    Evelyn Mary Dunbar
    Evelyn Mary Dunbar was a British war artist. She was the only salaried woman artist of the painters and sculptors employed during World War II by the War Artists Advisory Committee Her businesslike production of official war art uniquely documented women's engagement with the war, especially...

  • Simon Elwes
    Simon Elwes
    Lt. Col. Simon Edmund Vincent Paul Elwes, better known as Simon Elwes, RP, RA, KM was a British war artist and society portrait painter whose patrons included kings, queens, statesmen, sportsmen, prominent social figures and many members of Britain's Royal Family...

    , 1902–1975
  • Barnett Freedman
    Barnett Freedman
    Barnett Freedman CBE was a British artist, commercial designer, book illustrator, typographer, and lithographer.Freedman, the son of East-End Russian-Jewish immigrants, was self-educated during four years in hospitals, between the ages of nine and thirteen, because of asthma that was to trouble...

  • Ethel Gabain, 1882–1950.
  • Charles Ginner
    Charles Ginner
    Charles Isaac Ginner was a painter of landscape and urban subjects. Born in the south of France at Cannes, of British parents, in 1910 he settled in London, where he was an associate of Spencer Gore and Harold Gilman and a key member of the Camden Town Group.-Early years and studies:Charles Isaac...

  • Duncan Grant
    Duncan Grant
    Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...

    , 1885–1978.
  • Thomas Hennell
    Thomas Hennell
    -Early Biography:Hennell was born in Ridley, Kent in 1903. He studied at Regent Street Polytechnic and qualified as a teacher. He suffered a nervous breakdown from 1932-1935 and was detained at the Maudsley Hospital...

    , 1903–1945
  • Eric Kennington
    Eric Kennington
    Eric Henri Kennington RA was an English Sculptor, artist and illustrator, and an official war artist in both World Wars.-Early life:...

     (also a war artist in World War I)
  • Laura Knight
    Laura Knight
    Dame Laura Knight, DBE was an English Impressionist painter known for painting the world of London's theatre, ballet and circus.-Early life and education:...

     DBE
    Order of the British Empire
    The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1877–1970.
  • L.S. Lowry
  • Henry Moore
    Henry Moore
    Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

  • Paul Nash
    Paul Nash (artist)
    Paul Nash was a British landscape painter, surrealist and war artist, as well as a book-illustrator, writer and designer of applied art. He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.-Early life:...

    , 1889–1946.
  • Cuthbert Orde
    Cuthbert Orde
    Captain Cuthbert Julian Orde was an artist and First World War pilot. He is best known for his war art, especially his portraits of Allied Battle of Britain pilots.-Family background:...

    , 1888–1968
  • Mervyn Peake
    Mervyn Peake
    Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...

    , 1911–1968.
  • John Piper
    John Piper (artist)
    John Egerton Christmas Piper, CH was a 20th-century English painter and printmaker. For much of his life he lived at Fawley Bottom in Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames.-Life:...

  • Roland Vivian Pitchforth
    Vivian Pitchforth
    Roland Vivian Pitchforth RA ARWS was an English painter and an official British war artist during the Second World War. He was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and studied at Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art.-References:...

    , 1895–1982
  • Eric Ravilious
    Eric Ravilious
    Eric William Ravilious was an English painter, designer, book illustrator and wood engraver.-Career:Ravilious studied at Eastbourne School of Art, and at the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Paul Nash and became close friends with Edward Bawden.He began his working life as a muralist,...

    , 1903–1942.
  • Albert Richards
    Albert Richards
    Albert Richards was a British War ArtistAfter attending the Wallasey School of Art he briefly attended the Royal College of Art before joining the Royal Engineers in 1940. On D-Day he landed in France by parachute with the 6th Airborne Division and was killed when his jeep ran over a mine on the 5...

    , 1919-1945
  • William Rothenstein
    William Rothenstein
    Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...

     (also a war artist in World War I)
  • Alan Sorrell
    Alan Sorrell
    Alan Sorrell was in fact born in Southend, Essex, England, the son of a jeweller, who would take him drawing at an early age. He was trained at the Royal College of Art , and then won a scholarship to the British School of Rome . He was a Senior Assistant Instructor of Drawing, Royal College of...

    , 1904–1974.
  • Ruskin Spear
    Ruskin Spear
    Ruskin Spear, CBE, RA was an English painter.Born in Hammersmith, Spear attended the local art school before going on to the Royal College of Art in 1930...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1911–1990.
  • Stanley Spencer
    Stanley Spencer
    Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...

    , 1891-1959.
  • Graham Sutherland
    Graham Sutherland
    Graham Vivien Sutherland OM was an English artist.-Early life:He was born in Streatham, attending Homefield Preparatory School, Sutton. He was then educated at Epsom College, Surrey before going up to Goldsmiths, University of London...

     OM
    Order of Merit
    The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...

    , 1903–1980.
  • Carel Weight
    Carel Weight
    Carel Victor Morlais Weight was an English painter.Weight was born in Paddington in 1908. He studied at the Hammersmith School of Art and Goldsmiths College...

     CBE
    Order of the British Empire
    The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

     RA
    Royal Academy
    The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

    , 1908–1997,
  • Frank Wootton
    Frank Wootton
    Frank Wootton OBE PPGAvA was an aviation artist, famous for his works depicting the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.-Early life:Wootton was born in Milford on Sea, Hampshire in 1914...

    , 1914–1998
  • Doris Clare Zinkeisen
    Doris Zinkeisen
    Doris Clare Zinkeisen was a Scottish theatrical stage and costume designer, painter, commercial artist and writer. She was best known for her work in theatrical design.-Early life:...

    , 1898–1991.
  • Anna Katrina Zinkeisen
    Anna Zinkeisen
    Anna Katrina Zinkeisen was a Scottish painter and artist.in 1935, Anna Zinkeisen and her sister Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by John Brown and Company Shipbuilders of Clydebank to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the famous ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary...

    , 1901–1976

Recent conflicts

  • Peter Howson
    Peter Howson
    Peter Howson OBE is a Scottish painter. He was an official war artist in the 1993 Bosnian Civil War.Peter Howson was born in London and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrshire, when Howson was aged four...

    , b. 1958
  • John Keane
    John Keane (artist)
    John Granville Coldoys Keane is a British artist, whose paintings have contemporary political and social themes.-Life and work:John Keane was born in Hertfordshire, England...

    , b. 1954
  • Linda Kitson
    Linda Kitson
    Linda Kitson is a British artist. She is best known for her work as an official war artist during the Falklands Conflict.-Early life:Kitson studied at St Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art, where she specialised in illustration...

    , b. 1945

See also

  • War artists
  • Military art
    Military art
    Military art is a term describing works of art on military themes. The genre of military art is characterized by its subject matter rather than by any specific style or material used. The battle scene is one of the oldest types of art in developed civilizations, as rulers have always been keen to...

  • War photography
    War photography
    War photography captures photographs of armed conflict and life in war-torn areas.Although photographs can provide a more direct representation than paintings or drawings, they are sometimes manipulated, creating an image that is not objectively journalistic.-History:Photography, presented to the...

  • Norman Wilkinson (artist)
    Norman Wilkinson (artist)
    Norman Wilkinson CBE aka Norman L. Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but he was also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur...


Further reading

  • Gallatin, Albert Eugene. Art and the Great War. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1919).
  • Gough, Paul. ‘A Terrible Beauty’: British Artists in the First World War (Sansom and Company, 2010) ISBN 978-1-906593-00-1
  • Harries, Meirion and Suzie Harries. The War Artists: British official war art of the Twentieth Century. (London: Michael Joseph, 1983). ISBN 071812314X
  • Harrington, Peter. British Artists and War: The Face of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700-1914. (London: Greenhill, 1993). ISBN 1853671576
  • Haycock, David Boyd. "A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War." (London: Old Street Publishing).
  • Hichberger, J.W.M. (1988). Images of the Army: The Military in British Art 1815-1914. Manchester: University Press.
  • Sillars, Stuart (1987). Art and Survival in First World War Britain. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • Holme, Charles. The war depicted by distinguished British artists ("The Studio Ltd., 1918).

External links

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