Art in Exile


Lovely exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at the evacuation of objects from the museum in the Second World War.

The show looked not only at how the objects were evacuated but also in detail at the choices made in what was saved and how that might be different if we were deciding today. I was amused to see that some of the objects were returned to the army to be used again!

280 pictures and 350 albums of photographs were evacuated, just 7% of the art collection at the time. The photographs were later returned to be used in military training. A lot of Orpens and Laverys were saved as each had their own gallery in the museum at the time. There were no works but female artists saved but a number showing women’s work in the First World War were saved.

There was also a section on how the National Gallery was used in the war with the display of one masterpiece each month and the Gallery had lent a Rembrandt which had featured. The gallery lost one picture in the war by Richard Wilson which was undergoing conservation in London.

This was a nice opportunity to see some of my favourite pictures in the collection in a different context including this self portrait of William Orpen. 

Closes 5 January 2020

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