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.[1][2][3] War artists explore the visual and sensory dimensions of war, often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.[4]
These artists may be involved in war as onlookers to the scenes, military personnel, or as specifically commissioned to be present and record military activity.[5]
Artists record military activities in ways that cameras and the written word cannot. Their art collects and distills the experiences of the people who endured it.[6] The artists and their artwork affect how subsequent generations view military conflicts. For example, Australian war artists who grew up between the two world wars were influenced by the artwork which depicted the First World War, and there was a precedent and format for them to follow.[7]
Official war artists have been appointed by governments for information or propaganda purposes and to record events on the battlefield,[8] but there are many other types of war artists. These can include combatants who are artists and choose to record their experiences, non-combatants who are witnesses of war, and prisoners of war who may voluntarily record the conditions or be appointed war artists by senior officers.
In New Zealand, the title of appointed "war artist" is "army artist". In the United States, the term "combat artist" has come to be used to mean the same thing.[9][10]
Emmanuel Leutze's 1851 studio painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware is historically incorrect, and Leutze was born decades after the event his painting depicts, but this work has become an icon of popular culture.
War artists have depicted all the conflicts in which Australians have been called to combat. The Australian tradition of "official war artists" started with the First World War. Artists were granted permission to accompany the Australian Imperial Force to record the activities of its soldiers. During the Second World War, the Australian War Museum, later called the Australian War Memorial, engaged artists. At the same time, the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army, and Royal Australian Air Force appointed official war artist-soldiers from within their ranks.[14] These embedded war artists have depicted the activities of Australian forces in Korea, Vietnam, East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
The ranks of non-soldier artists like George Gittoes continue to create artwork which becomes a commentary on Australia's military actions in war.[15]
Selected artists
A select list of representative Australian artists includes:
British participation in foreign wars has been the subject of paintings and other works created by Britain's war artists. Artwork like the 1688 painting,The Fleet at Sea by Willem van de Velde the Younger depict the Royal Navy in readiness for battle. The Ministry of Defence art collection includes many paintings showing battle scenes, particularly naval battles.[32]Military art and portraiture has evolved along with other aspects of war. The British official war artists of the First World War created a unique account of that conflict. The British War Artists Scheme expanded the number of official artists and enlarged the scope of their activities during the Second War.[33]
Significant themes in the chronicle of twentieth-century wars have been developed by non-military, non-official, civilian artists. For example, society portraitist Arabella Dorman's paintings of wounded Iraq War veterans inspired her to spend two weeks with three regiments in different frontline areas: the Green Jackets at Basra Palace, the Queen's Own Gurkhas at Shaibah Logistics Base ten miles south-west of Basra, and the Queen's Royal Lancers in the Maysaan desert. In the field, Dorman drew quick charcoal portraits of the men she met. Returning to England, the sketches she made helped her use art to "evoke the emotions and psychological impact of war," rather than depicting the "physical horror" of war.[34]
Selected artists
A select list of representative British artists includes:
Representative works by Canada's artists whose work illustrates and records war are gathered into the extensive collection of the Canadian War Museum. The earliest war art in Canada was rock art created by Indigenous peoples from all regions of the country.[82] During the colonial period, large-scale, European-style paintings of war dominated New France and British North America.[82] The First and Second World Wars saw a dramatic increase in the production of war art in every medium.[82] A few First World War paintings were exhibited in the Senate of Canada Chamber, and artists studied these works as a way of preparing to create new artworks in the conflict in Europe which expanded after 1939.[83]
"The war art commissions brought intense focus to the observation of Canada's role in international conflict... A driving need for a strong national identity urged First and Second World War artists toward symbolism. While these vivid images are of a now distant past, they continue to communicate their messages to us, and so never lose their relevance."[84]
In the Second World War, Canada expanded its official art program;[83] Canadian war artists were a kind of journalist who lived the lives of soldiers.[84] The work of non-official civilian artists also became part of the record of this period. Canada supported Canadian official war artists in both the First World War and the Second World War; no official artists were designated during the Korean War.[85]
Among Canada's embedded artist-journalist teams was Richard Johnson, who was sent by the National Post to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2011; his drawings of Canadian troops were published and posted online as part of the series "Kandahar Journal".[86]
Prominent themes explored by Canadian war artists include commemoration, identity, women, Indigenous representation, propaganda, protest, violence, and religion.[87]
Selected artists
A select list of representative Canadian artists includes:
During the First World War, the work of artists depicting aspects of the military conflict were put on display in official war art exhibitions.[99] In 1916 the Ministry of Beaux-Arts and the Ministry of War sponsored the Salon des Armées to show the work of the artists who had been mobilized. This one exhibition realized 60,000 francs. The proceeds supported needy artists at home and the disabled.[99]
War artists have been appointed by the government to supplement the record of New Zealand's military history.[113] The title of "war artist" changed to "army artist" when Ion Brown was appointed after the two world wars.[114]
Conservators at the National Art Gallery considered the collection to be of historic rather than artistic worth; few were displayed.[115] New Zealand's National Collection of War Art encompasses the work of artists who were working on commission for the Government as official war artists, while others created artworks for their own reasons.[116]
Selected artists
A select list of representative New Zealand artists includes:
The American panorama created by artists whose work focuses on war began with a visual account of the American Revolutionary War. The war artist or combat artist captures instantaneous action and conflates earlier moments of the same scene within one compelling image. Artists are unlike the objective camera lens, which records only a single instant and no more.[126]
In World War II, the Navy Combat Art Program ensured that active-duty artists developed a record of all phases of the war and all major naval operations.[126]
The official war artist continued to be supported in some military engagements. Teams of soldier-artists during the Vietnam War created pictorial accounts and interpretations for the annals of army military history.[128] In 1992 the Army Staff Artist Program was attached to the United States Army Center of Military History as a permanent part of the Museum Division's Collections Branch.[127]
The majority of combat artists of the 1970s were selected by George Gray, chairman of NACAL, Navy Air Cooperation and Liaison committee. Some of their paintings will be selected for the Navy Combat Art Museum in the capital by Charles Lawrence, director. In January 1978 the U.S. Navy chose a seascape specialist team: they asked Patricia Yaps and Wayne Dean, both of Milford, Connecticut, to capture air-sea rescue missions off of Key West while they were based at the nearby Naval Air Station Key West. They were among 78 artists selected that year to create works of art depicting Navy subjects.[129][130][131]
Selected artists
A select list of representative American artists includes:
CAT II, 15 Oct 1966 – 15 Feb 1967, Augustine G. Acuna (Monterey, CA), Alexander A. Bogdanovich (Chicago, IL), Theodore E. Drendel (Naperville, IL), David M. Lavender (Houston, TX), Gary W. Porter (El Cajon, CA), and supervisor, Carolyn M. O'Brien
CAT IV, 15 Aug – 31 Dec 1967, Samuel E. Alexander (Philadelphia, MS), Daniel T. Lopez (Fresno, CA), Burdell Moody (Mesa, AZ), James R. Pollock (Pollock, SD), Ronald A. Wilson (Alhambra, CA), and technical supervisor, Frank M. Thomas
CAT V, 1 Nov 1967 – 15 March 1968, Warren W. Buchanan (Kansas City, MO), Philip V. Garner (Dearborn, MI), Phillip W. Jones (Greensboro, NC), Don R. Schol (Denton, TX), John R. Strong (Kanehoe, HI), and technical supervisor, Frank M. Thomas
CAT VIII, 1 Feb – 15 June 1969, Edward J. Bowen (Carona Del Mar, CA), James R. Drake (Colorado Springs, CO), Roman Rakowsky (Cleveland, OH), Victory V. Reynolds (Idaho Falls, ID), Thomas B. Schubert (Chicago, IL), and supervisor, Fred B. Engel
^Holmes, Richard; Strachan, Hew; Bellamy, Chris; Bicheno, Hugh (January 26, 2001). The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866209-9 – via Google Books.
^Harrington, Peter. "The First True War Artist," MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Vol. 9, No. 1, Autumn 1996, pp. 100–109.
^ abSteve Bell (2010-03-09). "Ronald Searle: a life in pictures". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Grove, Valerie. "Aged 90, Ronald Searle recalls the bad girls of St Trinian's,"The Times (London). February 20, 2010.
^Wilkins, Lola. "Interpreting the war: Australia's Second World War art." CWM, 2005.
^ abStrauss, David Levi. "George Gittoes with David Levi Strauss," The Brooklyn Rail (New York). July 8, 2010; Order of Australia, George Gittoes, AM, excerpt of citation, "For service to art and international relations as an artist and photographer portraying the effects on the environment of war, international disasters and heavy industry".
^AWM: Australia and the Boer War, 1899–1902; The incident for which Captain Howse was awarded the VC in Vredefort, July 1900 by William Dargie (1968, oil on paper on board, 25.5 x 35.5 cm), AWM ART29246
^ abcdefghij"World War I, official artists". Awm.gov.au. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Gray, Anne. (1986). "McCubbin, Louis Frederick (1890–1952)," Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 10, pp. 243–244; excerpt, "Appointed an official war artist under the Australian Records Section scheme to the 3rd Division, he visited scenes of battles with Wallace Anderson and Charles Web Gilbert after the war to collect data for proposed dioramas.
^ abcdef"Second World War, official artists". Awm.gov.au. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^"Australian official war artists - Second World War | Australian War Memorial". www.awm.gov.au.
^Gill Clarke (2008). The Women's Land Army A Portrait. Sansom & Company. ISBN 978-1-904537-87-8.
^Colahan, Colin – Australian War Memorial; An article and images of Colahan's war art compiled by Garry Kinnane., Journal of the Australian War Memorial, retrieved 2011-08-31
^"William Dobell" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^"Russell Drysdale" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Richard Eurich, The Official Website of Richard Eurich R.A., retrieved 2011-08-11
^Haese, Richard; Serle, Alan Geoffrey (1983). 'Herbert, Harold Brocklebank (1891–1945),' in Australian dictionary of biography. Vol. 9. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522-84273-9. OCLC 890244680.
^"Sketching naval life: the war art of Rex Julius". National Archives of Australia. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
^"Sydney Nolan" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^"Grace Cossington Smith" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^ abcdefgh"Conflicts 1945 to today, official artists". Awm.gov.au. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Defence, Dept of. Media Release "The Creation of the Army's Official Art Collection" [1]
^Brighton and Hove Museums, Melton Prior; Lee, Sidney. (2006). Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Second Supplement, Vol. 3, p. 136., p. 136, at Google Books
^Imperial War Museum. "Gassed and Wounded [Art.IWM ART 4744]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.; also a war artist in the Second World War.
^Imperial War Museum. "'Over The Top'. 1st Artists' Rifles at Marcoing, 30th December 1917 [Art.IWM ART 1656]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.; also a war artist in World War II.
^Imperial War Museum. "The Menin Road [Art.IWM ART 2242]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.; also a war artist in World War II.
^Imperial War Museum. "Paths of Glory [Art.IWM ART 518]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
^Imperial War Museum. "Harvest, 1918 [Art.IWM ART 4663]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 16 April 2013.; also a war artist in World War II.
^Imperial War Museum. "Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing-Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, 1919 [Art.IWM ART 2268]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 12 Nov 2013.; also a war artist in World War II.
^"Ministry of Defence | About Defence | What we do | Defence Estate and Environment | MOD Art Collection | Ministry of Defence Art Collection". Mod.uk. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^"Ruskin Spear" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Imperial War Museum. "Shipbuilding on the Clyde: Bending the Keel Plate, 1943 [Art.IWM ART LD 3106]". IWM Collections Search. Retrieved 12 Nov 2013.; also a war artist in World War I.
^"Graham Sutherland" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^"Carel Weight" (in French). Civilization.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Derek Eland (1 September 2011). "Helmand". derekeland.com. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
^ abLibrary of Congress (LOC), Salon des Armées, réservé aux artistes du front. Au profit des oeuvres de guerre. Jardin des Tuileries by Henri Dangon, color film slide; summary description
^McCloskey, Barbara. (2005). Artists of World War II, p. 50.
^McCloskey, p. 50; Yenne, William P. German War Art, 1939–1945.
^Klee, Ernst: The Cultural Encyclopedia of the Third Reich - before and after 1945, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt 2007, S. 15, reprinted 2009. ISBN 3596171539
^ abGerman Official War Artists Archived 2010-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, citing German War Art 1939–45 by William Yenne.
^Diósy, Arthur. (1900). The New Far East, p. xv., p. xv, at Google Books
^Okamoto, Shumpei. (1983). Impressions of the Front: Woodcuts of the Sino Japanese War, 1894–95, pp. 21, 27.
^Nussbaum, "Fujita Tsuguharu" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 200; McCloskey, p. 117.
^Nussbaum, "Ogata Gekkō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 737.
^Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric et al. (2005). "Migita Toshihide" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 628.
^Complutense University of Madrid, Biblioteca Histórica Marqués de Valdecilla. Exposición "Flores de Edo: samuráis, artistas y geishas" 4 November 2004 – 10 January 2005.
^Salmon, Andrew. "A Cartoonist at War: 'Gobau's' Korea, 1950," The Asia-Pacific Journal, July 13, 2009; "A teenage cartoonist’s diary of horrors," JoongAng Ilbo. July 10, 1010.
^"United States - Army Art Collection" Olin Dows, Online Gallery Exhibit". U.S. Army Center of Military History. U.S. Government. 2021-01-31. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
^"World War II Navy Art: A Vision of History: Draper". Naval History and Heritage Command. U.S. Government. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
^"They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II - William Draper". PBS. Lanker Inc. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
^Harrington, Peter (Spring–Summer 2002). "The 1943 War Art Program" (PDF). Army History (55): 4–19.
^Bartolett, Gregory. "Letter to the Editor: Artist Ludwig Mactarian conveyed the grit of a combat engineer's life". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2023-12-25.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^"Prints & Posters - Early Years - U.S. Center of Military History". U.S. Army Center of Military History. U.S. Government. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
^"MacDill Officer Presents Painting To Army School". The Tampa Tribune. 1949-11-07. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-12-25 – via Newspapers.com.
^"IN RECOGNITION OF WORLD WAR II VETERANS WHO SERVED AS COMBAT ARTISTS: DoD 50th Anniversary of WWII". the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]. Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 27, 1995). Retrieved 22 May 2018.
^"Obituaries : Taro Yashima; Artist, Author Aided U.S. in World War II". Los Angeles Times. 1994-07-06. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
McCloskey, Barbara. (2005). Artists of World War II. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313321535; OCLC 475496457
Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
Okamoto, Shumpei and Donald Keene. (1983). Impressions of the Front: Woodcuts of the Sino Japanese War, 1894–95. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. OCLC 179964815
Further readingedit
Brandon, Laura. (2008). Art and War. New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781845112370; OCLC 225345535
Cork, Richard. (1994). A Bitter Truth: Avant-garde Art and the Great War. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300057041; OCLC 185692286
Foot, Michael Richard Daniel. (1990). Art and War: Twentieth Century Warfare as Depicted by War Artists. London: Headline. ISBN 9780747202868; OCLC 21407670
Gallatin, Albert Eugene. (1919). Art and the Great War. New York: E.P. Dutton. OCLC 422817
Hodgson, Pat (1977). The War Illustrators. London: Osprey. OCLC 462210052
Johnson, Peter (1978). Front-Line Artists. London: Cassell. ISBN 9780304300112; OCLC 4412441
Jones, James (1975). WW II: a Chronicle of Soldiering. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. 1617592
Lanker, Brian and Nicole Newnham. (2000). They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II. New York: TV Books. ISBN 9781575000855; OCLC 43245885
Australia
Reid, John B. (1977). Australian Artists at War: Compiled from the Australian War Memorial Collection. Volume 1. 1885–1925; Vol. 2 1940–1970. South Melbourne, Victoria: Sun Books. ISBN 9780725102548; OCLC 4035199
Canada
Oliver, Dean Frederick, and Laura Brandon (2000). Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience, 1914 to 1945. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 9781550547726; OCLC 43283109
Tippett, Maria. (1984). Art at the Service of War: Canada, Art, and the Great War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802025418; OCLC 13858984
Germany
Gilkey, Gordon. War Art of the Third Reich. Bennington, Vermont: International Graphics Corporation, 1982). ISBN 9780865560185; OCLC 223704492
Weber, John Paul. (1979). The German War Artists. Columbia, South Carolina: Cerberus. ISBN 9780933590007; OCLC 5727293
New Zealand
Haworth, Jennifer. (2007). The Art of War: New Zealand War Artists in the Field 1939–1945. Christchurch, New Zealand: Hazard Press. ISBN 9781877393242; OCLC 174078159
South Africa
Carter, Albert Charles Robinson. (1900). The Work of War Artists in South Africa. London: "The Art Journal" Office. OCLC 25938498
United Kingdom
Gough, Paul. (2010). A Terrible Beauty: British Artists in the First World War. Bristol: Sansom and Company. ISBN 9781906593001; OCLC 559763485
Harries, Meirion and Suzie Harries. (1983). The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 9780718123147; OCLC 9888782
Harrington, Peter. (1983). British Artists and War: The Face of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700–1914. London: Greenhill. ISBN 9781853671579; OCLC 28708501
Haycock, David Boyd. (2009). A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War. London: Old Street Publishing. ISBN 9781905847846; OCLC 318876179
Hichberger, J.W.M. (1988). Images of the Army: The Military in British Art 1815–1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719025754; OCLC 17295891
Sillars, Stuart (1987). Art and Survival in First World War Britain. New York: St. Martins Press. ISBN 9780312005443; OCLC 14932245
Holme, Charles. (1918). The War Depicted by Distinguished British Artists. London: The Studio. OCLC 5081170
United States
Cornebise, Alfred. (1991). Art from the trenches: America's Uniformed Artists in World War I. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. ISBN 9780890963494; OCLC 22892632
Harrington, Peter, and Frederic A. Sharf. (1988). A Splendid Little War; The Spanish–American War, 1898; The Artists' Perspective. London: Greenhill. ISBN 9781853673160; OCLC 260112479
Chase Maenius. The Art of War[s]: Paintings of Heroes, Horrors and History. 2014. ISBN 978-1320309554
External linksedit
Mémorial de Caen, 1914–1918 war, Artists of the First World War
In War-torn Country a Soldier Looks at Iraq by Lance Nixon, Capital Journal, Vol 134 No. 27, 7 February 2014 pp C1-C6
Harvey Dunn at War by Lance Nixon, Capital Journal, Vol 134 No. 32, 14 February 2014 pp C1-C6. See Harvey Dunn
Remembering Battles They Fought Facing East: Plains Indians as War Artists by Lance Nixon, Capital Journal, Vol 134 No. 57 pp C1-C6
About light and dark in peace and war and a piece of Vietnam by Lance Nixon, Capital Journal (South Dakota), 17 January 2014.
Drawing fire by Lance Nixon, Capital Journal (South Dakota), 23 January 2014.
A photograph of a war is different from a painting “that’s not rocket science” by Dave Askins, Capital Journal (South Dakota), 20 April 2018.
Combat artists share ware experiences by Kerri Lawrence, National Archives News, 9 April 2018
National Archives Facebook Combat Art Panel
US Army Soldier-Artists in Vietnam (CAT IV, 15 August to 31 December, 1967) by James Pollock, War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, free downloadable PDF South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE repository/2009 Volume 21
SDPB Radio Interview MIDDAY Karl Gehrke interviews James Pollock, 10 June 2015.