Art

Richards was born in Liverpool, his father George was a World War One veteran. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London for three months before being conscripted into the Army in 1940.

After parachute training and promotion to Captain, he parachuted into Normandy on D-Day. Richards was killed in action on the night of the 5 March 1945, when he drove his jeep into an unmarked mine field in Holland. He was planning to make drawings of the retreating German troops. He told his friend that he was going to paint, what for him, was to be ‘the greatest picture of the war’. He was 25 years old.

Richards served with the Royal Engineers, and in 1941 was billeted at Inglesham, a small village in Wiltshire. This painting, and the one to the right, show the beautiful 13th century church of St John the Baptist at Inglesham.

This smaller painting includes the rectory and nearby Church Farm. In the foreground an Army truck is hidden under camouflage netting. It is thought to be a study for the larger painting, The Minute Halt, which includes soldiers resting at the side of the road. Both paintings helped to get Richards’ work recognised by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. He later gave them to his mother, signing them Bertie, as he was known by his family.

At the start of the Second World War, Worsley joined the Royal Navy. His drawings of life at sea caught the attention of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, and he was appointed as a full-time war artist.

In 1943 Worsley was captured by the Germans and detained at Marlag ‘O’, a prisoner-of-war camp. He continued to paint at the camp, documenting prison life using materials provided by the Red Cross. These parcels contained food and other supplies, reminding the men that they had not been forgotten. The tin cans were re-used for a variety of purposes, in Worsley’s case to safely carry his pictures to freedom in April 1945.

His skills as an artist were employed to forge identity papers. He also made a life-sized mannequin called Albert during an ingenious escape attempt, which in 1953 was made into a film, Albert R.N.

The Women’s Land Army worked in agriculture, replacing male farm workers who were called up for military service. It was created during the First World War but was reformed at the beginning of the Second World War. By 1944 had over 80,000 members.

Known as ‘Land Girls’, they were critical to Britain’s food production, providing much needed help for farmers across the country.

Bateman came from a farming family in Kendal. He was best known for his paintings of country life and would have been familiar with scenes like this pig shed. The War Artists’ Advisory Committee commissioned artists to document all kinds of war work, at home and overseas.

Born Laura Johnson in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, Knight was first given art lessons by her mother before attending Nottingham School of Art at the age of thirteen.  In 1903 she married fellow art student Harold Knight and they travelled to Staithes in Yorkshire, before moving to Cornwall.

In 1929, she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE).  Her work focussed particularly on the circus, the ballet and the theatre.  She also painted a number of works depicting Gypsies.

Knight’s painting shows members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) repairing a barrage balloon at RAF Wythall, near Birmingham. A quarter of a million women served in the WAAF during the Second World War. They worked in over 110 trades, supporting operations around the world.

As an Official War Artist, Knight was especially interested in representing women who excelled in roles traditionally carried out by men. Her long and successful career paved the way for many female artists.

A father sits looking thoughtful as his children slowly make their way to bed. One girl raises her finger to silence chatter while another child prays. The artist and his own children acted as models. But, there is debate whether the taller figure on the right is his wife Tryphena or his eldest daughter.

Hughes was part of the wider Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists, working with Rossetti, Morris and Burne-Jones occasionally.

Leighton greatly admired Islamic culture, yet made an error in this painting of the Umayyad Mosque’s prayer hall. Glimpsed on the far left is the mihra, a niche which points worshippers towards Mecca. Instead, Leighton makes the pulpit or minbar the central focus as it is in a Protestant church.

The Mosque was built during the early 700s but suffered terrible fire damage in 1893.

After a hard day’s work at sea, a weary fisherman returns home to his waiting wife and child. Young boys help to unload the catch and tidy nets.

It is a romanticised view of rural life reflecting the Victorian middle-class idea of ‘separate spheres’, where men worked while women tended the home.

Sir Thomas Hesketh, a Conservative, has won the election and stands on the Bull and Royal balcony. A cockerel, the Conservative mascot, is held aloft in victory, but it was claimed that voters were bribed. A man in a smock puts money in his pocket and, at the front, people scrabble for tossed coins.

Sherwood, a Russian, lived Blackburn for four years at the invitation of a local merchant.