Canadian official war artists

Last updated

Canadian official war artists create an artistic rendering of war through the media of visual, digital installations, film, poetry, choreography, music, etc., by showing its impact as men and women are shown waiting, preparing, fighting, suffering, celebrating. [1] These traditionally 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. The four Canadian official war art programs are: the First World War Canadian War Memorials Fund (CWMF), the Second World War Canadian War Records (CWR), the Cold War Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (CAFCAP), and the current Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP). [2]

Contents

A war artist will have depicted some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how war shapes lives. [3] The devastation of war is depicted in painting and drawing quite differently from what a camera can achieve.

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 role of the artist and his or her work embraces the causes, course and consequences of conflict and it has been primarily an essentially educational purpose, but now is a culturally independent act of witness in contemporary Canada. [3] Official war artists have been appointed by governments for information or propaganda purposes and to record events on the battlefield; [4] but there are many other types of war artist.

First World War

John William Beatty - Ablain St-Nazaire.jpg
Ablain-eglise01.jpg
Ablain-St. Nazaire by John William Beatty in the collection of the Canadian War Museum compared to the ruins of the church as seen today.

Representative works by Canada's war artists have been gathered into the extensive collection of the Canadian War Museum. In the First World War, Canada developed an official art program under the influence of Lord Beaverbrook. The Canadian-born, England-based businessman viewed war art not only as a form of historical documentation, but also an expression of national identity. [2] He provided leadership in creating the Canadian War Records Office in London in early 1916. Initially, the First World War was documented primarily using photography and film. Some of the extensive footage that official cinematographers produced of soldiers, machinery, and horses was later incorporated into Lest We Forget (1934), directed by Frank Badgley. [5] It was the first feature-length documentary war film made in Canada. [6]

In 1916 Lord Beaverbrook also established the Canadian War Memorials Fund, which was mainly privately funded and evolved into a collection of war art by over one hundred artists and sculptors in Britain and Canada. Under this program, Lord Beaverbrook commissioned one of the first significant Canadian paintings of the First World War, The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915, 1917, by English Canadian artist and illustrator Richard Jack. This commission was intended to address the lack of visual documentation of this major battle. [5]

Some artists who received commissions from the Canadian War Memorials Fund were considered "official" war artists. For example, the English artist Alfred Munnings was employed as war artist to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. Munnings painted many scenes, including a mounted portrait of General Jack Seely on his horse Warrior in 1918 (now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa). [7] Munnings worked on this canvas a few thousand yards from the German front lines. When General Seely's unit was forced into a hasty withdrawal, the artist discovered what it was like to come under shellfire. [8]

Alfred Bastien. Canadian Gunners in the Mud, Passchendaele, 1917 Alfred Theodore Joseph Bastien - Canadian Gunners in the Mud.jpg
Alfred Bastien. Canadian Gunners in the Mud, Passchendaele , 1917

Munnings also painted Charge of Flowerdew's Squadron in 1918 (now in the collection of the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa). [9] In what is known as "the last great cavalry charge" at the Battle of Moreuil Wood, Gordon Flowerdew was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for leading Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) in a successful engagement with entrenched German forces. [10]

The Canadian Forestry Corps invited Munnings to tour their work camps, and he produced drawings, watercolors and paintings, including Draft Horses, Lumber Mill in the Forest of Dreux in France in 1918. [11] This role of horses was critical and under-reported; and in fact, horse fodder was the single largest commodity shipped to the front by some countries. [12]

The "Canadian War Records Exhibition" at the Royal Academy after war's end included forty-five of Munning's canvasses. [13]

Another example of a war artist embedded with Canadian forces was the Belgian soldier-artist Alfred Bastien whose work is part of the permanent collection of the Canadian War Museum. [14]

In Canada, a separate committee affiliated with the Canadian War Memorials Fund was led by the National Gallery of Canada. It commissioned depictions of the home-front and recommended Canadian artists to serve overseas. Many famous examples of Canadian war art were produced under this program, including A.Y. Jackson's A Copse, Evening, 1918, and Frederick Varley's For What?, 1918. [5]

Second World War

Second Lieutenant Molly Lamb of the Canadian Women's Army Corps Second Lieutenant Molly Lamb of the Canadian Women's Army Corps (C.W.A.C.),.jpg
Second Lieutenant Molly Lamb of the Canadian Women's Army Corps

The Canadian War Records (CWR) was the name given to Canada's Second World War art program. The CWR produced two kinds of art: field sketches and finished paintings. The War Artists' Committee (WAC) recommended that the artists should attempt to share in the experience of "active operations" in order to "know and understand the action, the circumstances, the environment, and the participants." The ultimate goal was defined as "productions" which were "worthy of Canada's highest cultural traditions, doing justice to History, and as works of art, worthy of exhibition anywhere at any time." [15]

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." [16]

E. J. Hughes enlisted "at the Work Point Barracks in Esquimalt in 1939. Named the first “service artist” in 1941, he spent two winters in Ottawa before being posted to London, where he was attached to different regiments in England and Wales. His paintings of camp life and convoys reflect his keen attention to the details of vehicles, artillery, and uniforms. In 1943, on the Alaskan island of Kiska, he transformed sub-zero weather and howling gales into a powerful document of this remote theatre of war. He returned to Ottawa where he worked until 1946" [17]

Second Lieutenant Molly Lamb of the Canadian Women's Army Corps was Canada's only woman official war artist in the Second World War. One of her most significant works is Private Roy, 1946, a painted portrait of Sergeant Eva May Roy. She was one of the few Black members of the Canadian Women's Army Corps at the time. [18]

On the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the war artists were recognized and addressed directly in a Ceremony of Remembrance in the Canadian Senate,

What each of you achieved on the artist's canvas is more profound and more powerful than any words can express.

-- Hon. Greg Thompson, Minister of Veterans Affairs [19]

Recent conflicts

From 1946 to 2014 over 70+ civilian artists have participated in documenting the Canadian Forces. This was initially supported by the Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (CAFCAP) and more recently by the Canadian Forces Artist Program headed by Dr. John MacFarlane. [20] Internationally renowned artists who have participated in the Canadian Forces Artists Program include Gertrude Kearns, Adrian Stimson, Althea Thauberger, Tim Pitsiulak, and Rosalie Favell. [21]

Selected artists

First World War

This list shows selections from the authorized list of Official Canadian War Artists in A Checklist of the War Collections of World War I, 1914-1918, and World War II, 1939-1945 by R. F. Wodehouse (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1968). [22] Their work in the Canadian War Museum can be looked up on https://www.warmuseum.ca/collections.

Second World War

Capt. Will Ogilvie, Official army war artist, with some of his paintings, 9 February 1944 Will Ogilvie.jpg
Capt. Will Ogilvie, Official army war artist, with some of his paintings, 9 February 1944

This is the authorized list of Official Canadian War Artists in the Second World War according to A Checklist of the War Collections of World War I, 1914-1918, and World War II, 1939-1945 by R. F. Wodehouse (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1968). [23]

Recent conflicts

This article contains dynamic lists that may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

See also

Further reading

Notes

  1. ↑ Canadian War Museum (CWM), "Australia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War," Archived 2010-08-23 at the Wayback Machine 2005.
  2. 1 2 Brandon, Laura (2021). War Art in Canada: A Critical History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN   978-1-4871-0271-5. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  3. 1 2 Imperial War Museum (IWM), About the Imperial War Museum Archived December 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ National Archives (UK), "'The Art of War,' Learn About the Art." Archived 2011-06-22 at the Wayback Machine
  5. 1 2 3 Brandon, Laura (2021). War Art in Canada: A Critical History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN   978-1-4871-0271-5. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  6. ↑ Brandon, Laura (2021). War Art in Canada: A Critical History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN   978-1-4871-0271-5. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  7. ↑ Frost & Reed Archived 2010-11-01 at the Wayback Machine : Munnings biography. Archived 2010-01-22 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Chew, Peter. "The Painter Who Hated Picasso," Archived 2012-09-09 at archive.today Smithsonian. October 2006.
  9. ↑ Canadian War Museum: Archived 2010-05-10 at the Wayback Machine Munnings, Charge of Flowerdew's Squadron (1918). Archived 2011-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) Society: Archived July 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine History of Regiment. Archived February 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ Leister Galleries: Archived 2010-08-11 at the Wayback Machine Munnings. Archived 2008-03-12 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Keegan, John (1994). A History of Warfare , p. 308.
  13. ↑ Sir Alfred Munnings Museum: Archived September 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine The Artist. Archived 2009-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, Canadian War Museum Artifact Number: 19710261-0093—Canadian Gunners in the Mud, Passchendaele by Lieutenant Alfred Theodore Joseph Bastien, 1917, oil on canvas, Height 61.3 cm, Width 86.5 cm.
  15. ↑ Brandon, Laura. "'Doing Justice to History:' Canada's Second World War Official Art Program." Archived 2010-08-25 at the Wayback Machine CWM, 2005.
  16. ↑ Tolson, Roger. "A Common Cause: Britain's War Artists Scheme." Archived 2010-08-25 at the Wayback Machine Canadian War Museum, 2005.
  17. ↑ Amos, Robert (2022). E. J. Hughes : Canadian war artist. Canadian War Museum. Victoria, BC. ISBN   978-1-77151-385-2. OCLC   1304815832.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ↑ Brandon, Laura (2021). War Art in Canada: A Critical History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN   978-1-4871-0271-5. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  19. ↑ Robert Stewart Hyndman," Archived 2012-03-18 at the Wayback Machine Globe and Mail (Toronto). January 9, 2010.
  20. ↑ Brandon, Laura. "A Brush With War" Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine CWM, 2009.
  21. ↑ Brandon, Laura (2021). War Art in Canada: A Critical History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN   978-1-4871-0271-5. Archived from the original on 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  22. ↑ Wodehouse, R. F. "A Checklist of the War Collections of World War I, 1914-1918, and World War II, 1939-1945". archive.org. National Gallery of Canada, 1968. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  23. ↑ Wodehouse, R. F. "A Checklist of the War Collections of World War I, 1914-1918, and World War II, 1939-1945". archive.org. National Gallery of Canada, 1968. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  24. ↑ The Art of War," Archived 2016-03-26 at the Wayback Machine Canadian Army Journal, Vol. 12.3. Winter 2010. pp. 102-103.
  25. ↑ "War Artists | Canada Owes a Lot to Their War Artists". Archived from the original on 2022-02-04. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  26. ↑ "Home | scottwaters-artist". Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2022-03-25.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Seymour Allward</span> Canadian sculptor (1874–1955)

Walter Seymour Allward was a Canadian monumental sculptor best known for the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Featuring expressive classical figures within modern compositions, Allward's monuments evoke themes of memory, sacrifice, and redemption. He has been widely praised for his "original sense of spatial composition, his mastery of the classical form and his brilliant craftsmanship".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Lismer</span> English-Canadian painter (1885-1969)

Arthur Lismer, LL. D. was an English-Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven and educator. He is known primarily as a landscape painter and for his paintings of ships in dazzle camouflage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Y. Jackson</span> Canadian painter (1882–1974)

Alexander Young Jackson LL. D. was a Canadian painter and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Jackson made a significant contribution to the development of art in Canada, and was instrumental in bringing together the artists of Montreal and Toronto. In addition to his work with the Group of Seven, his long career included serving as a war artist during World War I (1917–19) and teaching at the Banff School of Fine Arts, from 1943 to 1949. In his later years he was artist-in-residence at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Varley</span> Member of the Canadian Group of Seven

Frederick Horsman Varley was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War artist</span> Artist who records their experience of war

A war artist is an artist either commissioned by a government or publication, or self-motivated, to document first-hand experience of war in any form of illustrative or depictive record. War artists explore the visual and sensory dimensions of war, often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Colville</span> Canadian artist

David Alexander Colville, LL. D. was a Canadian painter and printmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. E. H. MacDonald</span> English-Canadian artist

James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873–1932) was an English-Canadian artist, best known as a member of the Group of Seven who asserted a distinct national identity combined with a common heritage stemming from early modernism in Europe in the early twentieth century. He was the father of the illustrator, graphic artist and designer Thoreau MacDonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Nichols (painter)</span> Canadian artist (1921-2009)

Jack Nichols (1921–2009) was a Canadian artist from Montreal, Quebec. He was a painter and printmaker whose main interest in his art was people in the metropolitan scene. He was called by critics "a chronicler of the human condition" and compassionate in his depictions.

Kazuo Nakamura was a Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor and a founding member of the Toronto-based Painters Eleven group in the 1950s. Among the first major Japanese Canadian artists to emerge in the twentieth century, Nakamura created innovative landscape paintings and abstract compositions inspired by nature, mathematics, and science. His painting is orderly and restrained in contrast to other members of Painters Eleven. His idealism about science echoed the beliefs of Lawren Harris and Jock Macdonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pegi Nicol MacLeod</span> Canadian painter

Pegi Nicol MacLeod,, was a Canadian painter whose modernist self-portraits, figure studies, paintings of children, still lifes and landscapes are characterized by a fluidity of form and vibrant colour. Born Margaret Kathleen Nichol, she was a teacher, war artist and arts activist. In 1936 she became a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour and one year later she joined the Canadian Group of Painters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian art</span> Canadian art

Canadian art refers to the visual as well as plastic arts originating from the geographical area of contemporary Canada. Art in Canada is marked by thousands of years of habitation by Indigenous peoples followed by waves of immigration which included artists of European origins and subsequently by artists with heritage from countries all around the world. The nature of Canadian art reflects these diverse origins, as artists have taken their traditions and adapted these influences to reflect the reality of their lives in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Verelst</span> Dutch Golden Age painter (1648–1734)

John Verelst, born and known also as Johannes or Jan, was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He was the youngest of three sons of the painter Pieter Hermansz Verelst; all became known as painters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Collier (cartoonist)</span> Canadian alternative cartoonist

David Collier is a Canadian alternative cartoonist best known for his fact-based "comic strip essays."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miller Brittain</span>

Miller Gore Brittain was a Canadian artist from Saint John, New Brunswick.

Charles Stankievech is a Canadian artist, writer, publisher and curator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molly Lamb Bobak</span> Canadian teacher and artist

Molly Lamb Bobak was a Canadian teacher, writer, printmaker and painter working in oils and watercolours. During World War II, she was the first Canadian woman artist to be sent overseas to document Canada's war effort, and in particular, the work of the Canadian Women's Army Corps (C.W.A.C), as one of Canada's war artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Long</span>


Marion Long was an artist, elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1922. She was often commissioned to paint portraits, sometimes of military figures. She is known for her urban scenes.

Lest We Forget (1935) was the first feature-length documentary film with sound to be made in Canada. Written, directed and edited by Frank Badgley, who was then the Director of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, and W.W. Murray, with music by Edmund Sanborn and narrated by Rupert Caplan. A compilation, 10-reel film recounting Canada’s role in the First World War, it is fast-paced and has a verbose narration but was well received by critics and audiences at the time. The Bureau was the precursor to the National Film Board of Canada.

Adrian Stimson is an artist and a member of the Siksika Nation.

John Scott was a Canadian multimedia painter, sculptor, and installation artist.

References

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.