Canadian War Memorials Exhibition in the Great War

Original cover. In January 1919, the Canadian War Memorials Exhibition opened at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England. The war had ended only eight weeks earlier, and some artists, such as Richard Jack (1866–1952), were still finishing their paintings at the academy in the days before the exhibition opened. The show travelled to the United States in July 1919, where New York’s Anderson Galleries hosted it, before moving on to Canada.

These are the paintings and images presented in the pamphlet sold for 1 shilling during the first Canadian War Memorials Exhibition following the Great War.

Lord Beaverbrook

During the Great War, Canadian-born businessman Sir Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook) led the initiative to found the mostly privately funded Canadian War Memorials Fund (CWMF). Living in England and immersed in a culture of stately homes wallpapered with military portraits and battle scenes, Beaverbrook experienced war art not only as a historical record but also as an expression of national identity, and he sought to replicate this context for Canadians. Fulfilling this goal, the post-conflict exhibitions organized by the CWMF earned recognition for Canadian wartime achievements and artists and asserted Canada’s national independence. The program conspicuously anglophone, with minimal Québécois participation and only limited Indigenous and female representation.

Canadian War Museum

The official war art was supposed to be housed in a new Canadian war memorial art gallery in Ottawa, which was never built. Instead, until 1971, the National Gallery of Canada remained the custodian of the art of both the CWMF and the Canadian War Records Office. Since then, the Canadian War Museum, which dates to 1880, has held this responsibility, regularly adding to its current collection of artworks and organizing war art exhibitions.

Prime Minister of Canada by Harrington Mann

The Flag by Byam Shaw

An evocative painting of a soldier, who lay dead at the paws of a lion, (a symbol of Britain) with a Canadian red ensign flag draped over him to a grieving gathering of people.

A representation of soldier sacrifice.

Canada’s Answer by Norman Wilkinson

At the time, it was the single largest group of Canadians ever to sail from Canada.

On Night Patrol by Julius Olsson, A.R.A.

Albert Julius Olsson [commonly known as Julius Olsson] was born in Islington, London, England, on 1 February 1864.

His father was a Swedish timber agent and he spent much of his childhood in Sweden. He was a largely self-taught artist. 

Dinner by Anna Airy

One museum noted the following information on Anna Airy, a well-known British artist, which may explain why she was one of the few women painters employed during the war. “In the early years of the century she penetrated into Thames-side haunts of vice and crime in search of human nature in the raw. She has witnessed prize-fights without gloves, and cock-fights. She was present in an underground gambling den when murder was committed, and only escaped the police cordon by the wit of a cardsharper friend.”

On Leave by Clare Avwood

A Canadian Y.M.C.A. Hut in London.

Landing of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade at St. Nazaire, 1915 by Edgar Bundy

An English artist, Edgar Bundy was commissioned to commemorate the landing of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade at St. Nazaire, France, in February 1915.

The steamship Novian dominates the background.

2nd Battle of Ypres, April 22nd – May 3rd, 1915 by Richard Jack

Railway Cutting by Leonard Richmond

Canadian Railway Construction in France by British artist Leonard Richmond (1878-1965) depicts the construction of the deepest railway cut in France by the Canadian Overseas Railway Construction Corps.

Canadian Howitzer Battery in Action by Kenneth Forbes

A Canadian 6-inch howitzer supports British troops in the attack on Thiepval on 16 July 1916 during the Somme offensive. The artist captures the exhaustion of the gunners, who appear to have been firing for hours.

Prolonged exposure to the noise and shock artillery fire would rupture ear drums and ruin hearing. Most gunners suffered at least partial deafness as a result of their war service.

Canadians Opposite Lens, Winter 1917-18 by Augustus John

Having been given the rank of Honorary Major in the Canadian Army by Lord Beaverbrook, Augustus John was made official war artist and commissioned to paint a vast canvas depicting Canadian soldiers at war. He set off to France in December 1917 where he spent the next three months on the Front. He made countless drawings and paintings of the soldiers, often singularly, sometimes in groups set amongst bombed out buildings, horses and the charred remains of trees. These he worked into a preparatory 12 x 40 foot charcoal cartoon and between 1919-1921 he worked on the canvas.

Titled The Canadians Opposite Lens, Winter 1917-18 it was left incomplete and today hangs in the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.

Desolation by by David Young Cameron

The Footprint of the Hun by Major J Kerr Lawson

The Cloth Hall, Ypres shows the destruction brought about by repeated shelling by air and artillery fire. Only the central tower of the guild hall remains recognizable amid the rubble, while on the right, the Cathedral is in ruins. The central tower and one wing of the hall, were eventually rebuilt, and the debris of the other wing was cleared, save for some of the original pillars, which remained as a War Memorial.

Gas Attack by William Roberts

Canadian Gunpit by Lewis Wyndham

Taking of Courcelette by Captain Lewis Weirter, R.B.A.

The Road to Victory by Maurice Cullen

Canadian Foresters in Windsor Park by Professor Gerard E. Moira

No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital, France by Professor Gerald E Moira

Moira principal of the Edinburgh College of Art from 1923 until 1932, president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, vice-president of the Royal Watercolour Society, a member of the Royal West of England Academy, and a founder member of the National Portrait Society.

War in the Air by C.R.W. Nevinson

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer – one of the most famous war artists of the Great War. He is often referred to by his initials C. R. W. Nevinson, and was also known as Richard.

THAYEADENAGEA

The Death of Wolfe

The pamphlet notes this historical painting generously presented to Canada by His Grace the Duke of Westminster. Indeed, besides the original, at least four other additional versions of the Death of General Wolfe also produced by West.

Further examples kept at the Royal Ontario Museum and the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. The fourth copy produced resides at Ickworth House, Suffolk, England. Each reproduction had its own variation in the depiction of Wolfe’s death.

Conclusion

In Western culture, memorials include specific monuments, such as the Joseph Brant Monument, 1886, erected seventy-nine years after Thayendanegea’s (Brant’s) death, as well as buildings, parks, schools, streets, and highways named after military heroes. Private memorials can be in the form of quilts, photograph albums, framed memorabilia, and the naming of children. There is hardly a community in Canada that does not have a memorial hall. Even Canadian geography plays a role, with hills, peaks, lakes, and other geographic features given new meaning through memorial naming.

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