Without running the risk of knowing if this topic has arisen before,

I would like to propose an open question to all members who care enough about art to comment on:

"My favourite Great War painting is _____________ , because____________ ."

The floor is open. I hope you have lots of favourites. Please nail your picture on to this post...

Regards,
EoB

I'll kick it off with this chap:

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My favourite Great War painting is "Operating in a regimental aid post" by Austin Spare, because it quite simply captures the horror. Spare was a genius.

Regards,
EoB.

http://cas.awm.gov.au/PROD/ump.retrieve_um...&parm2=2000


'Menin Gate at midnight' was painted by Will Longstaff to commemorate those soldiers with no marked graves on the Western Front during the First World War. Longstaff attended a ceremony dedicating the Menin Gate memorial to the soldiers of the British empire forces, just outside the town of Ypres, Belgium, on 24 July 1927. The memorial was dedicated to the 350,000 men of the British and Empire forces who had died in battles around Ypres, and bears the names of 55,000 men with no known grave, over 6,000 of whom were Australians. Longstaff was profoundly moved by what he witnessed and that night, unable to sleep, Longstaff returned to Menin Road and later claimed to have had a vision of spirits of the dead rising out of the soil around him. On returning to his studio in London he painted 'Menin Gate at midnight' in a single session. Today 'Menin Gate at midnight' has achieved the status of a national icon, and it remains on permanent display in the Memorial. The painting retains its ability to provoke an emotional response and to communicate the scale of the loss of life and the devastation of war. However as people now have a very different understanding of war, the painting serves a slightly different function. Whereas in the past people responded to the painting as it related to the loss of a loved one and their own personal grief, now the painting communicates the loss experienced by a whole generation. The vast number of those who were killed, and the immensity of the damage wrought during the First World War, requires that those who sacrificed their lives should not be forgotten.

Kennington's sketch of the Scottish soldier lighting a cigarette that hangs in the hall at Talbot House Poperinghe, closely followed by the sketch at the foot of the stairs of Plumer and a private soldier.

‘Gassed’ by John Singer Sargent





There’s something amazing about the light in this painting.

And the detail…the way the third man in line is overestimating the height of the step he has obviously been warned about, and the football match that is being played in the background.

I have a large number of favourites . This painting being one them

Eric Kennington's Gassed & Wounded

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Chris

Besides "Menin Gate At Midnight" my favourite painting has to be "The Landing" featuring Australians at Anzac Cove
By George Lambert

Peter

I have loads of favourites!! It depends on what I've been reading/studying at the time really.

However one of my all time favourites has to be Paul Nash The Menin Road - for me it just symbolizes the industrial scale destruction with the two tiny figures moving across a lunar landscape.

http://www.art-ww1.com/gb/present.html - good site of WW1 art.

Also a big fan of Charles Sargeant Jagger sculptures...

This is proving to be a great topic - thanks guys.

Another favourite painting is Kennington's "Kensingtons at Lavantie", reverse painting on glass - a masterpiece of genius, you can feel their fatigue.

Worth the trip to see it in the flesh at the IWM - you won't be disappointed

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http://cas.awm.gov.au/PROD/ump.retrieve_um...&parm2=2000


Australian troops climbing a steep, rocky hillside at Gallipoli, the terrain prohibitive. Many of the soldiers are dead, or falling, and there are puffs of gun smoke in the sky. A narrow beach with two landing boats can be seen in the lower left of the image. The commission for this picture was placed in London but Lambert was not able to complete the painting until he returned to Australia. The Memorial paid 500 pounds for the painting. The colour sketch for 'Anzac, the landing' is held by the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Drawings of figures for the composition are held by the Australian War Memorial. On 25 April 1915 Australian troops forged ashore. An initial error in landing them a mile too far north confronted them with steep, scrub-covered and defended heights, different from the gentle sopes which they had been briefed to expect. The crucial decision to advance was made and the troops climbed the precipitous heights of Ari Burnu, hauling themselves upwards by their rifle butts and the roots and stems of bushes, while Turkish fire rained down on them. The initial assault continued as daylight came., battlefield, casualties, corpses; 1st Australian Imperial Force, 3rd Brigade, Turkish Army; Australians landing at Anzac at dawn, climbing hills to go inland, ship's boats on beach, dead and wounded Australians and one dead Turkish soldier, ascending ridge to Plugge's Plateau, The Sphinx, Walker's Ridge and Baby 700 on skyline.

For me

Excellent choice, though it makes me well up. All of Matania's paintings are first class, but my favourite has already been nominated, 'Gassed' by John Singer Sergeant.

I greatly admire Gassed - everytime I look at it I see even more in the background (eg the dogfights) but I keep coming back to "The Kensingtons at Laventie" because I keep finding even more detail and character in it.

Then ther is the simplicity of Keith Henderson's amazing shell bursts.

Why, though, stick to paintings, what about drawings and the like (he says being a big Nevinson fan......)

There are so many wonderful wartime images, and such variety. This is one of my favourites - not nurses, but merely women 'at work' in the War Hospital Supply Depot at Gerrard's Cross (artist Barnard Davis). This was going on nationwide, and suprising to think that they dressed so perfectly to sew, roll bandages and pack supplies.



Sue

For me

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David

My knowledge of art and artists is unfortunately nil!! Please keep this topic going. Fantastic!!

Cheers
John

Gassed gets my vote because it was one of the first WW1 paintings I remember seeing and it has also struck me as, oddly, so alive.

EoB,

Many thanks and congratulations for this starting this brilliant thread. All of the paintings posted are extremely poignant and evocative.

I'll be looking forward to the contributions to this thread with great interest!

Ian.

Great choices so far Pals!

For a long time I've much admired both Paul and John Nash's Great War artworks, and I'm afraid for me picking a 'favourite' is nigh on impossible. However, I'd like to mention Paul Nash's A howitzer firing as this always makes me think of my grandfather and his experiences in a 6" howitzer battery during the war:

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In memory of George James (Jim) Fayers who served as Gunner 86289 in 5 Siege Battery, RGA from March 1917 to March 1919.

Kind regards

Steve

Not, perhaps, the greatest painting to come out of the Great War, but as a link to later European works, I'd like to propose Christopher Nevinson's "La Mitrailleuse" [The Machine Gun]:

Also, although I don't have images to illustrate them, the works of the French sculptor (and subject of Ken Russell's "Savage Messiah") Henri Gaudier Brzeska, and the German artist Georg Grosz.

This is the first time I have seen this this painting. There something about it that leaves me with an impression of the representations of crusaders you sometimes find on stained glass in english churches...the small head on an elongated body and the balaclava helmet somewhat like a mail coif. I don't know if that was the intention of the artist but thats what occurred to me.

Incredible Gunboat!

This painting was 'reverse painted' on glass! I find it remarkable that the painting invokes that 'stained glass' / crusades iconography for you. I have never noticed this link, but as you say, particularly with the metal coif effect of the balaclava, I have to agree with you - the whole piece sings it.

The actual image is huge, and the use of glass gives the paint a liquid feel. Kennington painted the first layers on the back of the glass and worked up the layers - the effect is amazing, the finished surface is of course cause, quite literally, as smooth as glass. Genius.

A must to see it in the flesh. IWM.

Regards,
EoB.

Another favourite - who could leave out the classic Alfred Leete poster artwork.

I will stick my neck out and say that is one of the most imitated icons of the 20th century.

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Regards,
EoB.

More favourites - an incredible piece from the talented hand of Sir William Orpen, 'Zonnebke'

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The artist has captured the atmospheric lighting in such a way that you almost feel you are there, wet, cold and in the stench with the rest of the poor *******s

Drawings too!

Here's a delicately executed Nevinson for you:

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Regards,
EoB.

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An original water colour caricature as signed by C.Hunt dated 1918:

the inscription reads:

General Sir Wm.Robertson, GCB, KCVO, DSO, Col. 2nd Dns, ADC to the King
General Officer Commanding Eastern Command (Late Chief of the Imperial General Staff) 1918.

Robertson was Quartermaster General to the B.E.F (Iron Ration) in 1914 and later became Field Marshal Sir William Robertson GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO (1860-1933)

Harvest of Battle C.R.W. Nevinson. It really summarizes the cost of WWI and human conflict.

Leete was a Northamptonshire artist and you may be interested to know that the Gallery at Weston super Mare holds quite a collection of his work.

You are right to underline it as one of the most imitated icons of the 20th Century, indeed Leete effectively plagiarised a pre-war theatre poster to create this poster.

Interesting - do you know which theatre poster was used as the foundation for his classic rendition?

Regards,
EoB.

Most definitely Goodbye Old Man,
But also the other artists who captured those who did not know why fore did they be subject to terror, whilst doing their best.



http://i720.photobucket.com/albums/ww205/M...erHigh/Guns.jpg
by HS Power

Another favourite.
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David

There are some cracking pictures among these.
I've always liked war art, but I have not seen alot of these.

'Gassed' by J S Sargent is the one for me.
I think the sunlight and the movement of the men towards the rear, away from the action for a time, hopefully out of the fight for the duration, hopefully not too badly affected by the gas, hopefully on a trip to Blighty.
The men laid down in the mud obviously represent for me, the men who did not survive.
The football game being played out, is the war which carries on regardless of who is there.
Despite its rather dour and sad composition, I think the colourfulness of the picture exudes hope, after all the dark dreadfullness of war. That is how I see it.
I suppose art is open to all types of interpretation.
Fascinating stuff, though.

DW

David,

I am interested in knowing the title and artist (and any other details) for your painting a couple of posts ago.

Joanna

Joanna ,
If you mean post 30 this is "The absolution of the Munsters" by Matania, a great artist , also responsible many other great ww1 paintings.

Cheers.

Colin.

Absolution of the Munsters

Classic Thread

An excellent thread!

Regards
CGM

I like the painting by Matania in post 11, is the memorial to the 58th div. at Chipilly based on this painting ?,
cheers, John.

More horses for Ozzie:

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Don't know the artist I'm afraid, however the sketch really captures the battle against the mud.

Regards,
EoB.

I think one of the surprising features of many of the paintings shown on this thread is the incredible light effects. One has (quite wrongly I suppose) a fixed idea of the western front being in a perpetual gloom but many of the featured works have strong bright light almost a symbol of hope breaking through the gloom. Yet there is something unnatural about the light almost an exagerated brightness. Is this just representative of an artistic movement of that period or is it perhaps a accurate representation of the atmospheric conditions at the front. I can imaging that millions of tonnes of ordnance throwing all sorts of chemicals into the atmosphere may change the lighting.

Very interesting point Gunboat.

You would have to go a long way to beat Paul nash for the intensity of light of a shell burst. Captured so well here in 'The Ypres Salient at Night':

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As to isolated lighting as a movement of the time, I would argue that the rumblings of cubism and modernism would be further to the top of the magma chamber. However this use of light you mention has been adopted throughout the history of art with intensely powerful results.

In my humble opinion, Carravaggio was the first genius of isolated light sources, painting at the end of the 16th Century. Here's three paintings, top is Carravagio's 'The Calling of Saint Matthew', then approx two hundred years later, (middle) we have Joseph Wright's 'The Experiment with an Air Pump'. Again approx. two hundred years later we end with Eric Kennington's 'Gassed and Wounded'. The similarities in lighting are apparent, however each piece evokes quite a different emotive response. Pure genius.

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I personally admire this use of light as a dramatic stage for the artist to work in.

I hope you all disagree, and we get a good topic going!

Regards,
EoB.

The colour hit me with most of the paintings, I suppose it is because we are used to seeing the rather grainy black and white images that were produced at the time and the stills we come accross in our research. Colour adds a vibrance which we don't always associate with WW1 imagery, though it is a welcome change from the drabness that we have become accustomed to.
We have all seen the retouched photographs, though they are not a patch on the artistry of a real painting/sketch.
Lovely stuff.

DW

CGM,

Many thanks for posting the link, I have just spent my lunch time skimming through the thread. It is fascinating and very deserving of its place as a "Classic Thread". I'll now have to plan an evening or two to go through the entire thread.

Regards,
Ian.

Thanks Colin and CGM for the information and link on ''The Absolution of the Munsters'. There are never enough hours in the day to do all the reading I would like to do!

Joanna

EOB,
The pain and the desperation!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The men and the horses sunk in the mire.
Thank you for this one.

As for your later post, I may not understand the words but it is all explained in the works. And is that not what art is all about?

Kim

PS.

Speaking of art and horses???
If and when shall we see EOB horses??

That noble beast enslaved by the war machine.
Or that wild desert spirit held by the Light Horseman.

I can't seem to find who did what first but the sculptor of Chipilly died in 1927.
His work is, when you absorb it first hand, brilliant, and the WW2 damage adds pathos.
I walked about it, but could not touch it, in case I felt warmth and a pulse, such was the sculptor's skill in defintion.
Needless to say, after some time observing the sculpture, I was a blubbering mess, which was not lightened by the brevity of non horse lovers on reentering the modern mode of transport.

Kim

I have to agree with both by Charles and DW. Who can argue with the point that Carravagio was a genuis of isoloated light sources and there is evidence in some of the work of a transition from post impressionism to the modernism and cubism that followed. But I was struck like DW by the atmospheric light, I thought at first that it may simply be that are eyes and minds are accustomed to black and white imagery (the horses stuck in mud despite it being an incredible study is less striking for the very reason that the tonal value is familar to minds accustomed to black and white photographs. Yet there is something about the density of the light that is so striking. The only way I can explain it is when you see a true photographic image of Mars ...there is something familar and yet alien about the image. It looks like any desolate place on earth and yet there is a density in the atmosphere that makes it look both familar and different. This is what I see in some of the images here. I probably havent explained it particularly well but it is just how I interpret the use of light.

Contrasting light the Artists and Photograher's big gun . Used to highlight a certain part of the painting that the artist wants to lead your eye to or used more broadly to highten the drama of a painting . I'm thinking of Rembrandt's use of light in most of his self portraits and Turner in his use of light in his landscapes. Turner in my view managed to capture what Gunboat s describing, that sense of the familier with the alien, almost ethereal light

Has any member a better photo of my post 11 "Goodbye old friend" , would really be apreciated.

Colin.

Another favourite,William Orpen.
Really captures the harsh glare of the Chalk in these paintings

IWM collection

Dead Germans in a trench


Thiepval


Small mine crater La Boiselle

and some more

Description reads
The Manchesters, Arras. ´Just out of the trenches near Arras. Been through the battles of Ypres and Somme untouched. Going home to Sheffield to be married.´
I wonder if he survived the war



A change of mood and emphasized light on the dead soldier
Zonnebeke



The man himself.William Orpen self portriat, very Rembrandt in style

Chris thank you Turner is a great example! Where we have in these paintings that sense of ethereal light is it artistic intereptation such as Turners representation of light (or the impressionists) or could there have been an element of capturing what was in reality a corruption of normal light due to the all the stuff being sent into the atmospehere.

Those of us who live in the UK may have observed that in and around the 5th November the atmosphere sometimes takes on a strange quality which I have always put down to the numerous firework and bonfires....hmmm who are these strange men approaching in white coats...what is that sacklike think they are holding

This is a great thread...I may even make Brigadier General

Thanks Chris for those postings what equisite work.

Agian I cant rule out the wanderings of a fractured mind but with "Zonnebeke" there is to me a quasi religious feel to it...the positioning of the body is somewhat reminiscent of representations of Christ being taken down from the cross and the dug out taking a central, and raised position (surely not a good idea for a dug out in reality) gives in my mind the sense of the empty tomb following the resurrection.... does this speak of a "greater love"....