Alfred Munnings: War Artist 1918


Interesting exhibition at the National Army Museum looking at the work Alfred Munnings did as a war artist for the Canadian War Memorials Fund.

Munnings was commissioned by Lord Beaverbrook and this work was pivotal in establishing Munnings as an influential post-war artist. It was well labelled with symbols to highlight three different themes, his experience of a war artist, the military importance of the event and the artistic features.

It was nice to see drawings included in the show and in some cases shown with the finished painting. There was also a nice display of the equipment used by the cavalry that he was painting. I found the lighting rather poor for the paintings as there was a lot of reflection and it was sometime hard to find a place to stand so you could see the whole work.

The show was arranged in interesting themes starting with the landscape work he did when he first arrived in France, his time with the cavalry and the work of the forestry units. The latter of these was fascinating. I’d not realised all the wood used by the army had to be sourced from the forests of the Continent as importing it would have taken up valuable shipping space which was needed for food. However I defy anyone not to be singing “I’m a Lumber Jack” from Monty Python as they walk round this section.

Closes on 3 March 2019.

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