Francis Plowden comments that a picture of HMS Glorious (see Sea Eagles and Hurricanes) can be seen at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until the end of this month.
It is by Eric Ravilious. It depicts Hurricanes and Gladiators landing on Glorious’s deck. He painted it when he was on HMS Highlander, escorting Glorious. The following day Glorious left the convoy with two escorts. All three ships were sunk with the loss of 1,531 lives. This was in June 1940. There are still unanswered questions about this tragedy and a 100 year embargo was imposed arousing more speculation. Eric Ravilious was killed in August 1942 on a flight from Iceland to search for a missing plane. His plane too never returned. Here is a picture of Glorious entering the Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta in the 1930s.
Ravilious was one of about 400 artists chosen by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, chaired by Sir Kenneth, later Lord, Clark; Lord Clark of Civilisation as Private Eye called him. Perhaps surprisingly, only two others, Thomas Hennell and Albert Richards, were killed in action. Rex Whistler turned down an invitation to be an official war artist and instead served in the Welsh Guards. He painted this self portrait in May 1940, the day that his uniform arrived. Note the paintbrushes on the balustrade. They counter-balance his cap and Sam Browne on the chair behind him. He is on the balcony of a flat he had been lent overlooking Regent’s Park. He was killed in action in France in 1944.
As you know, this tradition of appointing war artists continues and here is an example of Andrew Miller’s work, when he was attached to the Royal Marines in Afghanistan.
The efforts of amateur artists, largely unseen I should think, shouldn’t be overlooked either. My father did a watercolour of Blenheims bombing shipping on the channel in 1940 and being attacked by Messerschmitts. Not a great work of art, but nevertheless a vivid representation of a battle by someone who was actually there. He was also an enthusiastic photographer. When the history of the RAF in the Far East during the war was written I was told his pictures were very helpful being largely of aircraft, taken against regulations and thus unusual. I don’t think he was a Japanese spy.
You are right to celebrate Rex Whistler of the Welsh Guards as a fine unofficial war artist. Actually he became a warrior-artist, I suppose. So too did the artist and map-maker, Charles Murrell, a committed if unlikely Welsh Guards NCO, whose illustrated diary of the 1944/5 battles to retake France, Holland, Belgium and Germany is a marvel. Both men were in-betweens socially. With Whistler, we have the touching mystery of his several ambiguities. With Murrell, we have the great luxury of his cool expression of his growing appreciation of the officer-class, amongst other insights.
Jolly interesting about Murrell and I will look for his diaries. I don’t think of Whistler as being in-between socially but must re-read a biography I have as I’m sure you are correct.