Art

The Galli Bibiena family were Italian architects and scenic artists. They worked throughout Europe during the late 17th and 18th centuries creating elaborate sets for theatres and events hosted by wealthy patrons.

Because their work was mostly created as temporary decoration, little of it has survived. This complex and beautifully detailed drawing offers a rare glimpse into the splendour and richness of the imaginary worlds created by this family of artists and decorators.

Fuseli was a Swiss painter who lived and worked primarily in Britain. Many of his works deal with supernatural subjects and nightmares. His style influenced many younger artists, including William Blake, whose work is displayed on the right.

This drawing is of a particularly dark subject. It shows a seated man with the limp body of a dead woman draped across his knee. The emphasis on musculature and the unnatural position of the dead woman at his feet adds to the drama of the scene.

The dark wash in the background is a technique often used by Fuseli. It pushes the figures towards the viewer, adding to the sinister atmosphere of the work.

Blake visited his friend John Varley, a landscape painter, over several nights in 1819. Here, from nine in the evening until the early hours, Blake is said to have sketched visions that appeared before him.

His drawings included long-dead historical figures such as Robert the Bruce and Alexander
the Great and characters of myth and legend including Merlin and Robin Hood. Blake continued to make these visionary drawings over a number of years. Most were gathered together in sketchbooks with inscriptions written by Varley.

The Visionary Heads in this drawing are Greek historical figures – Pindar the poet and Lais, a beautiful courtesan. The fine, delicate lines give the drawings a dream-like quality, the figures appear to hover on the page as if in a trance.

This painting depicts the skeletal remains of a burnt out Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM79 bomber. It was made from a photograph taken after a raid on Castel Benito, an airfield created by the Italian Air Force in Tripoli.

Armstrong was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee to make two paintings of crashed aircraft. The other is now at Manchester Art Gallery. Called September 1941, it depicts wrecks of British and German fighter planes on the south-coast.

At the outbreak of the War, Bone enlisted with a unit at Leamington Spa to work on camouflage designs aimed at concealing important sites like power stations, factories and air fields. He was made a full-time, salaried War Artist in 1943, filling a post vacated by his father Muirhead, who had been the very first War Artist appointed.

Bone specialised in Admiralty subjects, travelling across the country painting Royal Navy bases, ships and submarines. In 1944 he witnessed the Normandy landings, and recorded Naval activity like this Destroyer. The warship used torpedoes and anti-aircraft guns to protected merchant-ship convoys and battle fleets from attack.

The Siege of Malta was a military campaign to maintain control of the island, which was an important British colony and trade route to North Africa, India, and the Far East.

Malta was one of the most heavily bombed places during the Second World War. The RAF and Royal Navy fought against German and Italian forces who attacked the island’s ports, towns and supply ships.

Cole arrived in Malta in May 1943. He observed the end of the siege, and recorded military sites like this bomb store. He also made paintings depicting the hardship and cruel conditions endured by Malta’s civilian population.

In June 1944, Hennell was sent to Portsmouth to record preparations for D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy. Soon after, he was across the English Channel making watercolour sketches of troops on the Normandy beaches.

The coastal town of Boulogne was badly bombed by the RAF during the invasion. In August, Hitler declared the town a “fortress”, but in September the town was liberated by the Canadian Army. This painting of the town’s church in ruins is a poignant reminder of the suffering and destruction endured by so many during the Second World War.

Hennell was sent to record the war effort in India and Burma (now Myanmar). He survived the war but disappeared in Java in 1945. Reports suggest that he was captured and killed during the Indonesian War of Independence, but this was never confirmed.

This is a portrait of Ralph William Daish, the Chief Engineer of HMS Lorna Doone. A paddle steamer requisitioned by the Admiralty as a minesweeper in 1939. The Admiralty was the government department responsible for the command of the Royal Navy.

Dring was born in Streatham, London. He graduated at the Slade School of Art, before teaching drawing at Southampton School of Art. Dring was appointed as an official War Artist to the Admiralty in 1942.

He travelled widely across Britain, making portraits of Naval officers. Working in soft pastel allowed Dring to get colour and detail onto the paper quickly. He took no longer than an hour to finish each portrait.