Art and war -- the two subjects may at first seem mutually exclusive: we think of artists as being socially sensitive and creative, positive forces in their communities; conversely, war is perceived as blindly destructive, sweeping away lives, societies, and art itself. What could more exemplify the apparent antithesis of these two activities of mankind than the partial destruction of Athens' Parthenon in 1687 by the explosion of ammunition stored inside the structure?
In fact, art and warfare have been intimately related for centuries. Few artists have been able to ignore or to escape totally the social and other impact of warfare on their lives. Indeed, they frequently have been active participants in the conflicts, both as combatants and as artists. The brutality of war has had a particularly powerful effect on the sensibilities of some artists.
Approaches to War Art
War art serves many functions and can be studied from at least three vantage points. Firstly, one can view works of art as contemporary records of events unfolding. These are frequently in the form of sketches, watercolours or oil paintings executed during or immediately after a conflict. The nation is caught up in a traumatic event which is observed but not fully understood and the artist, according to experience and powers of expression, records the incidents and simultaneously articulates and transmits his or her impressions to the public. At times the artist is able to touch the collective consciousness and strengthen national pride.
Secondly, the artist can participate in the nation's post-war response to the hostilities. Once the emotions associated with victory or defeat have dulled, a reflective mood sets in and both sides ponder the changes and cost of their conflict. The triumphant warriors and, ultimately, the victims are commemorated in monuments and other works of art. Some works created at the time of the actual struggle may be considered as appropriate memorials if they capture the contemplative, post-war spirit.
Thirdly, as the veterans die and memories of the events fade, war art acquires a new significance. The works retained in public collections archives, art galleries and various museums become grist for the mills of social, military, and art historians, as well as many other types of researchers. These paintings, drawings, etc. constitute a double sort of record; not only do they illustrate military events and personalities, they also document the history of art itself. The viewer is able to study the evolution of visual expression and the artistic response to a wide spectrum of changes.
An Historical Overview
War has been a subject handled by the artists of succeeding civilizations. The tombs and temples of ancient Egypt have yielded elaborate paintings of battle scenes. The magnificent temples created for Ramses II at Abu Simbel were decorated with elaborate bas-relief carvings showing that monarch's triumphal return with soldiers and prisoners from a southern campaign. Assyrian temples and public buildings were rich with art work, both painted and sculpted, illustrating the weapons and tactics employed by Middle Eastern societies. Indeed, the Assyrians were more realistic in their art than were the Egyptians; the former's imagery stressed the bloodshed and cruelty of wars and included the torture of prisoners and the extermination of conquered peoples. Egyptian work, on the other hand, had tended to exalt the valour of the pharaohs, describing the benefits of their victories rather than the costs.
In order to honour successful generals and emperors, the Romans erected columns and triumphant arches which bore relevant depictions of their victories. Not only did this imagery record military superiority over enemies, it also implied a higher level of culture which made such successes possible. These monumental works inspired such later creations as the Arc de Triomphe (1806-1836) in Paris and the Wellington Arch (1846) in London. Between 106 and 113 A.D. Roman artists worked on a victory column, thirty-eight metres high, to commemorate the triumphs of Emperor Trajan's two campaigns against the Dacians (the ancient inhabitants of Romania). More than 150 separate episodes from the campaigns are recorded in a continuous spiral band which winds almost 200 metres up the column; included are such activities as the construction of fortifications, marching, the besieging of cities, and the crossing of a river on a pontoon bridge. Trajan's column inspired the artists who designed a monument to stand in the Place Vend├┤me in Paris and celebrate Napoleon's victories. The relief band which spirals up the column was created with bronze recovered from Austrian, Prussian and Russian guns captured during Napoleon's campaigns. Although political changes in France occasioned a succession of figures on the top of the column, today a copy of the original statue of Napoleon in the guise of a Roman emperor dominates the monument.
Religious subjects characterize much of what remains of medieval art. The Christian church was the major art patron in the Middle Ages and ecclesiastical buildings and their contents were frequently spared in the destructive wars which raged in the period. Illuminated manuscripts both of the Old Testament and of works by selected classical authors were created for ecclesiastical patrons and these frequently include views of military forces and actions. At times, however, the artists exhibit little awareness of period dress; an Old Testament figure such as Joshua may appear in the garb of a Roman general. The outstanding survival of medieval war art is undoubtedly the Bayeux Tapestry (ca. 1073-1083), some seventy metres of linen embroidered with wool which illustrates William the Conqueror's invasion of England.
The revolution in arts and sciences during the Renaissance resulted in changes of subject matter and technique; secular topics were adopted by many artists and the study and application of perspective introduced a new way of perceiving and presenting the world. Paolo Uccello's The Rout of San Romano (ca. 1455) is a transitional work which reveals a Florentine painter, trained in the Gothic style of painting, attempting to incorporate new ideas of perspective into a colourful and active study of rival Italian factions in battle. Venice, the most prosperous and belligerent of the Italian city states, employed major artists to depict her military and naval campaigns in works housed in the Palace of the Doge. Battle scenes were cast in detailed landscape settings, unlike ancient and medieval depictions of combat which had usually been painted, carved, or woven apparently in space, with little or no reference to local geography.
Following the Renaissance period, military subjects enjoyed a great vogue in art. Increased popularity, however, did not necessarily mean greater realism. Seeking to satisfy their patrons, artists concentrated mainly on the military leaders, who were often depicted as Roman generals rather than as contemporary figures. Works such as Benjamin West's The Death of Wolfe (illustration 2) are a significant departure from the tradition of using classical garb. The standard formal arrangement for military subjects was the positioning of colourfully attired senior officers on horseback in the foreground and the relegation of the actual battle to the distant background, mere spectacles for the aristocratic equestrians.
Not all war art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was so antiseptic. The Surrender of Breda by Diego Velazquez conveys the sense of important events without rhetoric, but with great power and conviction. Other artists such as Jacques Callot, Francisco Goya and Vasili Vereshchagin examined the horrific aspects of war. Callot, a French engraver from Nancy, demonstrates the foibles of humanity in his series Les Grandes Misères de la Guerre, a detailed and powerful examination of the destruction wrought by Cardinal Richelieu's troops in Lorraine in 1633. The French artist's work influenced the Spaniard Goya when he prepared his sixty-five etchings Los Desastres de la Guerra, an overwhelming statement against the savage pillage by Napoleon's armies. The Russian artist Vereshchagin's fascination and repulsion in the face of war were conditioned by his experiences in the conflict with Turkey during 1877-78; Vereshchagin was wounded and his brother killed.
The recording of military life was not confined to famous artists. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries professional officers of European armies frequently were trained in sketching. This education enabled them to describe accurately the topography of regions where battles might subsequently be fought; the eye was taught to observe and the mind to appreciate the military significance of geographical features. The resulting art work generally dealt with landscapes and fortifications; seldom did it portray actual combat.
Thomas Davies was both an example and an exception to this statement. An officer of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, he served in North America on several occasions 1757 to 1763, 1776 to 1778, and 1786 to 1790 and participated in many campaigns. A prolific sketcher and watercolourist, Davies created dozens of works showing wilderness scenes, streets, and barracks. He also recorded a few of the events that he witnessed: the siege of Louisbourg, the burning of an Acadian village, and a minor naval skirmish on the St. Lawrence River. These works, however, do not convey any sense of action or emotion, understating the deep portrayed. A casual sketch of canoes conveying General Amherst's troops down the St. Lawrence River in 1760 is deceptively tranquil; the operation was actually a dangerous journey through extensive rapids that cost some eighty-five lives
The nineteenth century also saw the development of another type of artist. Greater literacy and improved printing technology gave rise to illustrated newspapers. Wars were always "good copy" and the era had many conflicts with which to fill pages: European wars great and small, revolutions, and expeditions against numerous African tribes and Asian potentates. The "special artists" employed by major newspapers constituted a unique group in the contemporary press community, somewhat akin to the special correspondents for later wars or modern television news cameramen.
Sometimes the newspaper artists travelled in great luxury; Melton Prior, for example, covered the Zulu War of 1879 with a wagon, five horses, a bed, a tent, and a substantial stock of whiskey. Yet most of these artists shared the dangers and discomforts of the soldiers they sketched. Jules Pelcoq, an artist with the illustrated London News, experienced hunger in Paris during the Prussian siege of 1870-71 and his sketches had to be flown out of the city by balloon. Frank Vizetelly covered the American Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War (1866), and assorted smaller conflicts, only to die by Dervish hands in the Sudan in 1883. Theodore Davis, an American artist, was twice wounded in the course of the Civil War and he once had to draw his revolver in order to prevent surgeons from amputating his leg.
Canada had only a small illustrated press, the most outstanding example being the Canadian-Illustrated News which was published between 1869 and 1883. Artists had few military operations to cover, the Fenian Raid and the Wolseley expedition of 1870 being the only domestic, martial exercises in the first decade after Confederation. The nearest Canadian equivalent of European and American war illustrators was Octave Henri Julien (ca. 1852-1908) who recorded the 1874 march across the Prairies by the North West Mounted Police, a paramilitary force. The short-lived North West Rebellion of 1885 gave birth to the Canadian Pictorial and Illustrated War News, a newspaper which had a similarly brief history. The staff of that paper produced and published a large number of sketches; F.W. Curzon ("special artist" attached to Major-General Middleton's North West Field Force), Corporal E.C. Currie, and Lieutenant R.L. Wadmore presented the view from the front while W.D. Blatchly, J.W. Bengough, William Bengough, J. Humme, and J.D. Kelly contributed work from the safety of the Toronto offices.
Official Artists and Total War
War and art became more intimately related in the twentieth century. The First World War dwarfed earlier conflicts and illustrated the concept of "total war" a struggle in which the belligerents harness all available resources in order to ensure victory. Manpower was required on such a large scale that voluntary enlistment proved inadequate. France, Germany, and Russia had employed conscription from the outset; Britain adopted it in 1916 and Canada, at significant political cost, followed suit in 1917. Conventional funding schemes were incapable of matching the vast expenditures associated with this type of warfare so governments secured additional finances through the promotion and sale of bonds and new forms of taxation. Canada, for example, resorted to an income tax in 1916; it was to have been a temporary measure but, once adopted, it was never removed. At the same time, industry and agriculture were organized and mobilized to an unprecedented degree. Production of consumer goods was cut and scarce items were rationed. Factories were built for, or converted to, the manufacture of guns, shells, military vehicles, ships, gas masks, and all the other paraphernalia of war. Scientists and engineers developed new weapons, medicines and engines. With manpower absorbed by the armies, womanpower was recruited into the factories.
It is hardly surprising that, given the totality of modern warfare, artists and art itself were mobilized to support the war effort. Indeed, they were employed by all participants in very similar ways, both in the First and Second World Wars. The most obvious area in which artists could aid the war effort was propaganda. Posters urged people to do or refrain from doing many things which might support or hinder the national effort. Some were crudely designed; others exhibited considerable skill and artistry. Particularly effective designs might be copied by other nations (illustration 29).
Also of considerable importance was the employment of official war artists, although the degree to which such artists could be useful was not immediately recognized by all sides. British artists, including "special artists" who had covered earlier wars for newspapers, were discouraged from operating near the front lines until 1916. More frequently they found themselves welcomed in French sectors of the line. The first official war artist employed by Britain, Muirhead Bone, was selected by propaganda authorities. Although one might expect that Bone's works would distort the war in Britain's favour, in fact they accurately recorded events and conditions as he witnessed them. Bone's drawings, initially published in a service magazine, were collected into a book of which copies eventually reached Germany and Austria, where his artistic achievement was readily acknowledged. Thus, even when motivated by propaganda, the aesthetic and emotional merits of war art could surmount international frontiers. Another instance of this phenomenon is the popularity of the British wartime cartoon character "Old Bill" (the creation of Bruce Bairnsfeather), who both the enemy and the Allies adopted.
Bone was fortunate in the freedom allowed him from 1916 onwards. Later British artists found officialdom much more interested in their activities and more restrictive. Paul Nash noted "I am not allowed to put dead men in my pictures, because apparently they don't exist." The artist's dilemma encountered throughout history and currently shared by newspaper, radio, and television reporters was how to accept official sponsorship or assistance while retaining freedom of expression. The problem was resolved in different ways. British artists in the Second World War and Canadian artists in both World Wars exercised considerable discretion in their choice of subjects and means of expression. Bruno Bobak, a Canadian artist, recalled that in 1944-45 the only directive he received was to advise him that too many sketches of burned-out German tanks were being submitted. In Germany and Soviet Russia, on the other hand, artists had to accept a doctrine of realism in their presentations. Japanese war artists of the Second World War were permitted latitude in their selection of techniques and they employed both traditional brush painting and contemporary occidental methods. The same artists, however, avoided negative views of the war or of their nation's particular effort.
The Canadian War Art Collections
The fact that Canada possesses a major war art collection is owing primarily to Sir Max Aitken, the Canadian press baron and politician who became Lord Beaverbrook. During much of the First World War he served as a link for the Canadian and British war efforts. Simultaneously an ardent Imperialist and a Canadian nationalist, Aitken was determined that the work of the Canadian Expeditionary Force should be recognized both within and beyond the Dominion. To this end Aitken was active in publishing a three volume study, Canada in Flanders (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916), of the experiences of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; the first two volumes he wrote himself. Aitken also promoted a still photography and cinematography programme. In 1917 he was placed in charge of the Canadian War Records Office and became responsible for unit diaries and other field documents of historical interest. Under Aitken's leadership, an illustrated newspaper, the Canadian Daily Record, was produced and distributed to the troops between January 1917 and July 1919.
One of Aitken's most ambitious programmes was the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Monies were collected through the sale of photographs and publications, and eventually the proceeds from art exhibitions were added to the fund. The initial purpose of the Fund was to finance publicity for this nation's war effort. In addition, it was to be the basis for a permanent memorial commemorating Canada's wartime sacrifices.
In mid-1917 the Canadian War Memorials Fund undertook promotion of a war art scheme. Assisting were a variety of British figures, including Paul Konody (art critic for the Observer) and fellow press magnates Lord Rothermere and Sir Bertram Lima. Sir Edmund Walker, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the National Gallery of Canada, promoted the project in Canada. Administering the programme with flexibility and flair, Aitken borrowed several artists from the British scheme until some Canadian ones were brought to his attention. Most artists were granted honourary captaincies or majorities, giving them much freedom in the field. A British artist, Augustus John, was permitted to retain his beard.
The end product of this ambitious scheme was the Canadian War Memorials Collection some 850 works ranging from pencil sketches, lithographs, pastels, and watercolours to massive oils on canvas. The latter works were so ambitiously enormous in conception and realization that their storage and display proved to be a problem. Following a series of exhibitions in Britain and New York City, the Canadian War Memorials Collection reached Canada and was transferred formally to the Canadian government in 1921. The National Gallery of Canada undertook to store and preserve the works, pending construction of the memorial gallery which Aitken had envisaged for the housing of the collection. Although some elementary architectural planning was conducted, the memorial gallery was never built. Precisely why this happened is uncertain, but it would seem that funds for construction in the immediate post-war period were exhausted by the rebuilding of the Centre Block of Parliament. The original structure had been destroyed by fire in February 1916. The design of the new Centre Block incorporated a war memorial, the Peace Tower with its Memorial Chamber and the exterior mezzo-relievo (half-relief) sculpture of a soldier resting on arms reversed.
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War an official war art programme was launched in Great Britain. Despite urgings from many quarters the press, military historians, the art community in general and several former official war artists in particular Canada did not immediately act along the same lines. As an intermediate step, the National Gallery of Canada directed a few artists into work dealing with the war effort.
The Dominion government finally organized a war art scheme in January 1943. While it resembled the First World War effort, it also differed in some respects. During the First World War artists employed overseas had been granted honourary commissions in the Canadian Expeditionary Force; those employed in Canada had retained their civilian status. The Second World War saw artists commissioned in all three services (Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force), regardless of where they served. Moreover, the distinction between official war artists and other military personnel was reduced as far as possible. The painting of military scenes was considered as important a duty as the driving of a tank. The services of artists were secured in several ways. Some, such as Charles Comfort, were recruited from civilian life. Others had enlisted in the forces for combat and were transferred to war art duties; Robert Hyndman and Miller Gore Brittain, for example, had flown operational tours with squadrons overseas before being assigned painting tasks. The Royal Canadian Navy tended to employ officers already serving afloat to act as official war artists; the men alternated painting and more conventional work. An art competition for Canadian Army personnel led to the discovery of Bruno Jacob Bobak, who was transferred from the Royal Canadian Engineers to work as an artist.
The fruits of this artistic wartime labour are known as the War Records Collection and this body of work was transferred to the National Gallery of Canada in 1947. Some 5,000 creations document operations overseas and in Canada, including domestic war production. Supplementing the collection are some seventy works presented as a gift by the British government. In the post-war period donations and purchases of related works, including examples of German war art, further expanded an already impressive accumulation. In 1971 the greater part of the war art collections was transferred from the National Gallery of Canada to the Canadian War Museum.
The War Artist at Work
Working conditions for war artists varied according to the service arm to which they were attached. Even when employed solely on art duties they were exposed to hazards; indeed, three British artists were killed during the Second World War. None of Canada's official war artists suffered a similar fate, but there were several narrow escapes. Paul Goranson, while en route from Canada to England, had his ship torpedoed and spent several hours in an open boat before being rescued. George Pepper became stranded in enemy territory in August 1944 and was reported missing for ten days before regaining Allied lines. Charles Comfort was almost killed on four occasions: once through an air raid, twice through artillery fire, and another time when a V-2 rocket exploded near his London quarters.
Although specific subjects might be assigned to an artist (a portrait of an officer, for example) the normal routine was to despatch the painter to an area with instructions to obtain coverage of the activity then in progress, be it the construction of an airfield, the repair of tanks, assault training or whatever. Having been assigned one or more broad topics, the official war artist selected a particular aspect and set to work.
Oil paints could not be used easily in field situations; they were bulky and dried too slowly. The favoured method was to execute a pen or pencil sketch or a watercolour. Large works, oils on canvas, and complex paintings were ordinarily created in a studio in London or back in Canada.
The reception accorded the official war artists was almost uniformly warm and sympathetic; senior officers and enlisted men alike were keenly interested in their creations. The first exhibition of Charles Comfort's wartime paintings was held in 1943 at an army rest centre at Campobasso, Italy. The show comprised fifty-four works by Comfort and his fellow artist, Will Ogilvie, and attracted 3,137 visitors in two days.
Alex Colville has suggested that soldiers, having difficulties in expressing their emotions or describing their experiences in letters home, regarded the war artists as people able to convey the complexities of their situation to those who had not participated directly. Official war artists were not immune to social pressures; they could be as chauvinistic as other people, and produce works which might be interpreted as glorifying war. On the other hand, they were frequently horrified by what they saw and rose, on occasion, to communicate those horrors to people far away in both space and time.
War Art in Perspective
The utility of war art has been questioned by some who feel that, with the availability of modern photographic techniques and equipment, pictorial records such as those in the collections of the Canadian War Museum are perhaps no longer necessary. Some events, however, do not lend themselves to photography, particularly combat at close quarters. At no time has an action which merited the Victoria Cross been witnessed or recorded by a photographer. We have had to look to artists to re-create pictorial impressions of such dramatic events.
Yet there is another, more profound reason for preserving and studying war art. Artists have recorded more than scenes and events. They have also demonstrated the values, hopes, fears, and problems of the societies in which they lived and worked. If, in their varied ways, they could express views on poverty, social alienation, disease, oppression or prosperity, then they could equally make statements about the wars which raged about them and transformed their world.
