Draft page for text about art and artists of WWI

Artists

Artists died in, or as a result of, WWI

Notes from Treasury file T 1/12216

Pictorial Propaganda Committee

Established July? 1918

Minister of Information[Lord Beaverbrook], Lord Rothermere, CFG Masterman and Sir Alfred Mond and Sir Martin Conway “specially to represent” the IWM

Scheme 1 for “a particular picture” from an “artist of high standing” Scheme 2 for the total output [“Heaven forbid!”] of “artists of lesser importance” for an annual salary. Scheme 3 artists given “facilities to visit the front” and Ministry in return receives “first option to purchase sketches and pictures”

“Under scheme 1 it is proposed to include the following artists:

John S Sargent RA | John Singer Sargent
Professor H Tonks | Henry Tonks
A McEvoy | Ambrose McEvoy
CJ Holmes | Charles Holmes - article does not mention war work
Anna Airy
P. Wilson Steer | Philip Wilson Steer
Walter Bayes

“The arrangements under scheme 2 are intended to refer to the following:-

W. Roberts
Paul Nash
John Nash
Colin Gill
Alfred Hayward
Muirhead Bone
John Wheatley
WT Wood
James McBey
Gilbert Ledward

--

[Subsequent document]

“Scheme 1. Artists at work”

CJ Holmes
John S Sargent [paid £800]
Henry Tonks
George Clausen
P. Wilson Steer
Walter Bayes
Ambrose McEvoy

“Preliminary negotiations”

Augustus John
Henry Lamb
DY Cameron
Charles Sims
Glyn Philpot
Darsie Japp - example painting here
Bernard Meninsky [omitted from subsequent list but later stated as commencing work 1 Sept 1918.]
Anna Airy
Dorothy Coke
Mark Gertler
Sir John Lavery
JW Morrice

“Scheme 2. Artists at work”

Muirhead Bone
John Nash
Paul Nash
W Roberts
Gilbert Ledward
John Wheatley
Alfred Hayward
Colin Gill
WT Wood [all ticked]
Henry Rushbury [unticked but included in subsequent list]
James McBey [ticked – McBey was working from probably January 1918 judging from the file. He was a Lieutenant in Palestine]
Sir William Orpen [remainder unticked]
Wyndham Lewis
T Derrick “(status not yet defined)”
WB Adeney

“Preliminary negotiations”

Stanley Spencer
Eric Kennington
CRW Nevinson | Christopher R. W. Nevinson
AN Lewis
Randolph Schwabe [“at work” in subsequent list]
AJ Munnings
Harold Squire
CS Jagger [“at work” in subsequent list] | Charles Sargeant Jagger

Scheme 3

Flora Lion
John Everett
F Dobson
Harold Harvey
JD Fergusson | John Duncan Fergusson - article doesn't mention war work
WW Russell | Walter Westley Russell

--

Letter to Treasury from MoI, September 4th 1918

“Pictures are used by the Ministry as propaganda in one or both of two different ways: (1) for purposes of reproduction, and (2) for purposes of exhibition….The commissioning of pictures…was instituted in the early days of official propaganda in this country and successful exhibitions have been given in the leading cities and towns of Great Britain of the work of Muirhead Bone, Francis Dodd and James McBey. An exhibition of paintings of William Orpen, which were commissioned by this Ministry was recently held at the Agnew Galleries [in London?]. These pictures are now being exhibited at Manchester, and together with other paintings which are being borrowed from various sources, they will shortly be sent out to America for exhibition in New York, Washington, Boston and other important centres. A large collection of pictures has recently been sent to Switzerland for exhibition there; and at the joint request of the Prime Minister and Lord Beaverbrook, Sargent has agreed to paint a large piece on the subject of the Anglo-American Forces in France, which will in due course be exhibited…”

“It will be seen that pictures of this character, by reason of their authorship, their subject matter and their artistic quality will inevitably have an abiding value to the nation, and must, in due course, form a national memorial of immense interest and importance. In these circumstances, the Minister was forced to the conclusion that whilst his great object must always be to forward the ends of propaganda, it would be indefensible on his part to ignore the other aspect of the matter…in formulating his scheme the Minister has not been unmindful of the object of the Imperial War Museum.”

Letter, 28th October 1918

“It now appears that Mr T Derrick has been working under the Committee under scheme 2 since the beginning of the present month”

Letter, 4th November 1918

“Both bodies [IWM and MOI] have commissioned a considerable number of pictures and have artists working for them…”