Painting War

A History of Australia's First World War Art Scheme

Margaret Hutchison

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781108471503
• eBook ISBN: 9781108591454
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

During the First World War the Australian Government established an official war art scheme, sending artists to the front lines to create a visual record of the Australian experience of the war. Around two thousand sketches and paintings were commissioned and acquired between 1916 and 1922. In Painting War, Margaret Hutchison examines the official art scheme as a key commemorative practice of the First World War and argues that the artworks had many makers beyond the artists. Government officials' selection of artists and subjects for the war paintings and their emphasis on the eyewitness value of the images over their aesthetic merit profoundly shaped the character of the art collection. Richly illustrated, Painting War provides an important understanding of the individuals, institutions and the politics behind the war art scheme that helped shape a national memory of the First World War for Australia.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 A record for posterity, 1916–17
• Chapter 2 Implementing the art scheme, 1917–18
• Chapter 3 Gazing on strange and terrible lands, 1916–18
• Chapter 4 A beautiful graveyard, 1919
• Chapter 5 A suitable memorial, 1920–22
• Conclusion
• Appendix A Artists at the front, 1916–19
• Appendix B National War Records Office Art Committee canvases, 1917–18
• Appendix C List for composition memorial canvases, December 1918
• Appendix D Bean’s five lists, May 1919
• Appendix E Treloar’s amendments to the third list of paintings, c. 1920
• Appendix F Images displayed in the War Museum, Melbourne, 1922
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Color Plates