Our Place in The First World War
Lead Research Organisation:
Kingston University
Department Name: Sch of Art and Design History
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Jonathan Black (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Black J
(2015)
Reading and the First World War
Black J A
(2018)
Alfred Munnings. Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918
Black J A A
(2017)
War In The Sunshine: The British In Italy, 1917-18
Black J A A
(2016)
William Rothenstein and His Circle
Black J AA
(2017)
The Great War and the British Empire: Culture and Society
| Title | Exhibition: War in the Sunshine: The British In Italy Through The Eyes of Sydney Carline, Ernest Brooks and William J. Bruenll, 1917-18.' |
| Description | First exhibition of work from WWI by Sydney Carline in the UK since July 1973 and of photographs of the Italian Front by Brooks and Brunell since November 1919. The exhibition consisted of 24 Paintings and Drawings by Carline and 50 photographs by Brooks and Brunell, all from the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, and was held at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London (13 January-19 March 2017). Prior to their exhibition a number of the Carlines required restoration to make them display-worthy. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 92-page catalogue incorporating an essay by military historian Mark Thompson (University of East Anglia) about the British military experience in Italy, November 1917-November 1918 plus two essays by myself: one focusing on Sydney Carline in Italy and the other on Brooks and Brunell as official photographers in Italy, 1917-18. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | The exhibition has attracted record visitor numbers for the Collection and has coincided with a spike in membership applications. To date two thirds of the catalogue print run of 1,100 copies have been sold. Furthermore the exhibition has attracted some very positive critical reaction on the radio (Radio 4's 'Front Row' programme) and in the national press with favourable reviews in: The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Tablet, The Art Newspaper, Apollo Magazine and the British Journal of Photography. The Art Department of the IWM, London has reported a distinct rise in interest in Sydney Carline (e-mail and telephone enquiries). |
| URL | http://estorickcollection.com/exhibitions/war-in-the-sunshine-the-british-in-italy-1917-1918 |
| Description | The research funded by this grant was critical to considerably and significantly expanding my knowledge of official British Art of the First World War. In particular it led me to consult papers and archival material regarding the often overlooked and under appreciated British artist Sydney Carline (1888-1929) in the Imperial War Museum, London and the Tate Gallery Archive, Tate Britain. Without awareness of this material I could not have proposed and then curated the exhibition 'War in the Sunshine: The British In Italy, 1917-18' at the Estorick Collection, London (January-March 2017). Nor could I have contributed two essays to the catalogue, about Carline and the two British official photographers Brooks and Brunell, when hitherto very little secondary literature existed concerning these three individuals. In the essay on Carline I was able to discuss in some detail how his pre-war career and artistic training, in London and Paris, informed the appearance of the war art he produced in Italy for the British Ministry of Information. This research on Sydney Carline has also led me to explore other aspects of his career and artistic output: his time as Master of Drawing at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (1922-1929) as well as the many architectural etchings and medals designs he produced during his career c. 1906-1926. Research for the project also enabled me to contribute to the mounting of an exhibition at the National Army Museum, London about Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) as an official war artist in France in 1918 for the Canadian War Memorial Fund. This was held 30 November 2018-3 March 2019 and comprised 44 works in oils in which the artist painted scenes from his time attached firstly to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade (February-March 1918) and then with various companies of the Canadian Forestry Corps in Normandy. Burgundy and the Jura (April-June 1918). This research also provided me with more than sufficient material to write an eleven thousand word essay about Munnings's experiences as a war artist and what his imagery suggests as to his perception of Canadians as an Englishman. |
| Exploitation Route | My exhibition 'War in the Sunshine' at the Estorick Collection appears to have considerably raised the profile of Sydney Carline and his siblings Hilda and Richard to the extent that the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum are considering a display of Sydney Carlines medal designs (with associated preparatory drawings in their collection) in the next two to three years while the Department of Western Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University is also considering my proposal for an exhibition there devoted to the art of Sydney, Hilda and Richard Carline - to take place in 2020 which will be the 100th anniversary of the first joint exhibition mounted by Sydney and Richard as well as the 70th anniversary of Hilda's death and the 40th anniversary of Richard's demise. Two of the curators at the Ashmolean wish to give public talks on aspects of the art and careers of the three Carlines and I have been asked to contribute to the envisaged programme of public talks. Given the success of 'War in the Sunshine' with critics and the public I recently approached the Burgh House Museum, Hampstead with a proposal to mount an exhibition there of 35-40 drawings, prints and paintings by Sydney, Hilda and Richard Carline focussing on work produced c. 1914-35 during which time the three were living on Downshire Hill NW3 - only a short distance from the Museum located in New End Square, NW3. My proposal was accepted in principle and the exhibition will be held at the Museum, April-September 2021. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue which I shall edit and to which I will contribute an essay focussing on Sydney Carline's career as a painter, watercolourist, etcher and medal designer c. 1908-29. I am currently looking for other contributors to write essays on Richard Carline's long and distinguished career as an art educationalist and on Hilda Carline's art production while, and after, married to Stanley Spencer. |
| Sectors | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.estorickcollection.com/exhibitions/war-in-the-sunshine-the-british-in-italy-1917-1918 |
| Description | Research from the project, regarding WWI memorials by CS Jagger in London, was used in public lecture I gave at the Hepworth, Wakefield in March 2015. Lecture open to public of 45 minutes duration followed by 20 minutes of questions. I produced an information sheet about Jagger's war memorials (in London and elsewhere), copies of which were available to the public after my talk at the Museum's Information Desk. Research derived from this project has also enabled me to curate the Exhibition 'War in the Sunshine: The British In Italy, 1917-1918' at the Estorick Collection, London (13 January-19 March 2017) consisting of 25 paintings and drawings by the British official war artist Sydney Carline (1888-1929) and 50 photographs by British official war photographers Ernest Brooks (1878-1941) and William Joseph Brunell (1878-1960). In addition, research associated with the past AHRC project permitted me to write an illustrated essay for the exhibition catalogue, some 8,500 words in length, exploring Carline's experiences in Italy first as a fighter pilot and then as a war artist or the RAF Section of the Visual Art Department of the Ministry of Information. This research had also led me to consider the role of British official photography in the First World War and led me to consider the careers of Brooks and Brunell through consideration of their archives in the Department of Photography in the imperial War Museum, London. This led me to write an essay of some 3,000 words on the activities of Brooks and Brunell in Italy working for the Ministry of Information c, 1917-19 for the exhibition catalogue. Research form the initial project also enabled me to give a number of lectures regarding aspects of British war art and memorial sculpture from the First World War to the public. For example: a talk in March 2017 for the Friends of Milbank about the experiences of Paul Nash (1889-1946) as a front line soldier and the work he later produced as an official war artist for the British Ministry of Information c. 1917-19 and a lecture in April 2017 for the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire Branch of the Western Front Association that explored the war memorials created for locations within the UK and elsewhere c. 1919-34 by the British sculptor and war veteran Charles Sargeant Jagger MC (1885-1934) - with particular reference to the memorial he designed c. 1919-22 for Bedford Town Council. Research concerning the activities of British war artists living in London proved most useful when advising on mounting of an exhibition about Alfred Munnings as a war artist in France in 1918 held at the National Army Museum, London, 30 November 2018-3 March 2019. It also provided vital information for a book on the subject I published in November 2018 with the National Army Museum to accompany and complement the aforementioned exhibition. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | An Exhibition: War In The Sunshine: The British in Italy, 1917-18 |
| Organisation | Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I devised the content and scope of the exhibition and located works (76 paintings, drawings and photographs) within the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London to be borrowed for the exhibition. I undertook research at the IWM, London and at the Tate Gallery Archive, London into the three artists on whom the exhibition was to focus: painter Sydney Carline (1888-1929) and photographers Ernest Brooks (1878-1941) and William J. Brunell (1878-1960). I also researched the history of the British military involvement on the Italian Front in 1917-18 in depth. As a consequence of my research I wrote two essays for the exhibition catalogue (which I also edited), one of Sydney Carline and one on Brooks and Brunell. I also contributed a politico-military-cultural timeline of key events to the catalogue and provided the text for the main exhibition information panels. I helped design an exhibition leaflet and helped with the hanging of the works prior to the opening of the exhibition. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Estorick provided the venue for the exhibition: two large rooms on its ground floor. It enabled me to successfully apply to the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art, London, for a grant to help pay for a suitably illustrated exhibition catalogue (The collection was awarded £3,500). Its personnel arranged for the formal loan of works from the IWM, London (24 paintings and drawings by Carline and 50 photographs by Brooks and Brunell) and for their hanging in the designated exhibition spaces. The collection also organised public relations and advertising for the exhibition and a suitable on-line presence. Finally, it published a 100 page catalogue for the exhibition - fully illustrated with the majority of the plates in full colour. |
| Impact | As a consequence of mounting this exhibition I have been invited to give tours of the exhibition next month for: The British-Italian Society of Great Britain; the Friends of the Ruskin School of Art and The First World War Historical Aviation Society. I will also be giving a 45 minute informal talk later in February to visitors to the exhibition exploring Sydney Carline's flying experiences during WWI and his perception of Italy while staying there in 1918. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Exhibition: 'Alred Munnings: War Artist, 1918', National Army Museum, London, 30 November 2018-3 March 2018 |
| Organisation | Canadian War Museum |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Mid-November 2017 I was approached by the broadcaster Brough Scott MBE who was also a grandson of the commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, 1915-18, Brigadier-General John Edward Bernard 'Galloper Jack' Seely (1868-1947). He was looking for a British art historian willing to work with the National Army Museum, London and the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa on an exhibition exploring the work British artists Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) had painted while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Canadian Forestry Corps in France in 1918 as an official war artist employed by the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Two months later the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, joined as a partner in the project (it will take a revised form of the exhibition now at the National Army Museum for the period: April-September 2019). I researched the activities of Munnings c. 1912-20 in relevant archives including: the British Library, London; the Imperial War Museum, London; Tate Gallery, London and in the Chelsea Arts Club, London. I drew upon this material to write an eleven thousand word essay on the 44-46 oil paintings Munnings produced while engaged as an official war artist for the Canadians. I also discussed a dozen drawings in pencil and charcoal Munnings produced while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade (February-March 1918) and now in the collection of the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham. In addition I invited five other authors to contribute shorter essays (2.500-3,000 words) to a book that would be published to accompanying and complement the exhibition envisaged to take place on Munnings and the First World War at the National Army Museum, London c. November 2018-March 2019. In addition from the research I undertook within the UK I advised Curators at the National Army Museum, London and the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa on the content of text and context panels to be provided to accompany exhibits at the Munnings Exhibition to open at the National Army Museum, London. I completed my essay on schedule, edited five other essays contributed by: Brough Scott and John Fairley (independent scholars) and Dr. Tim Cook (Canadian War Museum, Ottawa); Pip Dodd (National Army Museum, London) and Dr. Bill Teatheredge (Munnings Art Museum, Dedham) and the resulting book 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918' was ublished in London in time for the opening of the exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' at the National Army Museum, London. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The National Army Museum provided the space in which the exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' was to be held plus two relevant works by Munnings from within its own collection. The overwhelming majority of exhibits, 42 oil paintings by Munnings from 1918 were lent by the Canadian War Museum. Ottawa. The exhibition was to be designed/curated by a Curator each from the respective Museums. The Canadian War Museum found the funds to have the 42 oil paintings first suitably conserved and then transported across the Atlantic to London. The Canadian War Museum also had two thirds of the paintings re-photographed for the provision of high resolution scans which were then reproduced in the book I edited to accompany the exhibition: 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918.' The Canadian War Museum did not charge me for the new photography nor for the reproduction of their Munnings paintings. Furthermore, the Munnings Art Museum provided me free of charge with 12 high resolution scans of pencil and charcoal drawings Munnings produced in 1918 while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade; nor did the Museum charge me for the reproduction of these works in the book on which I was working. |
| Impact | Book edited by J. Black and B. Scott, 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918' (published November 2018, ISBN: 978-1-5272-2609-8). Book involves following disciplines: History of Art, military, social and political history and Canadian Studies. Lecture by J. Black, about Munnings and the First World War, for the Friends of the National Army Museum, London (1 hour, December 2018). Lecture by J Black and B. Scott, about Munnings and J.E.B. Seely and the Canadians in the First World War and 1920's, for the general public at the National Army Museum, London (1 hour, January 2019). Have been invited by the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, to give a lecture there about Munnings and the British contribution to the war art commissioned by the Canadians War Memorials Fund, 1917-19. Lecture scheduled for October/November 2019 - when the exhibition is expected to be touring in eastern Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal). |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Exhibition: 'Alred Munnings: War Artist, 1918', National Army Museum, London, 30 November 2018-3 March 2018 |
| Organisation | Munnings Art Museum |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Mid-November 2017 I was approached by the broadcaster Brough Scott MBE who was also a grandson of the commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, 1915-18, Brigadier-General John Edward Bernard 'Galloper Jack' Seely (1868-1947). He was looking for a British art historian willing to work with the National Army Museum, London and the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa on an exhibition exploring the work British artists Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) had painted while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Canadian Forestry Corps in France in 1918 as an official war artist employed by the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Two months later the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, joined as a partner in the project (it will take a revised form of the exhibition now at the National Army Museum for the period: April-September 2019). I researched the activities of Munnings c. 1912-20 in relevant archives including: the British Library, London; the Imperial War Museum, London; Tate Gallery, London and in the Chelsea Arts Club, London. I drew upon this material to write an eleven thousand word essay on the 44-46 oil paintings Munnings produced while engaged as an official war artist for the Canadians. I also discussed a dozen drawings in pencil and charcoal Munnings produced while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade (February-March 1918) and now in the collection of the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham. In addition I invited five other authors to contribute shorter essays (2.500-3,000 words) to a book that would be published to accompanying and complement the exhibition envisaged to take place on Munnings and the First World War at the National Army Museum, London c. November 2018-March 2019. In addition from the research I undertook within the UK I advised Curators at the National Army Museum, London and the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa on the content of text and context panels to be provided to accompany exhibits at the Munnings Exhibition to open at the National Army Museum, London. I completed my essay on schedule, edited five other essays contributed by: Brough Scott and John Fairley (independent scholars) and Dr. Tim Cook (Canadian War Museum, Ottawa); Pip Dodd (National Army Museum, London) and Dr. Bill Teatheredge (Munnings Art Museum, Dedham) and the resulting book 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918' was ublished in London in time for the opening of the exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' at the National Army Museum, London. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The National Army Museum provided the space in which the exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' was to be held plus two relevant works by Munnings from within its own collection. The overwhelming majority of exhibits, 42 oil paintings by Munnings from 1918 were lent by the Canadian War Museum. Ottawa. The exhibition was to be designed/curated by a Curator each from the respective Museums. The Canadian War Museum found the funds to have the 42 oil paintings first suitably conserved and then transported across the Atlantic to London. The Canadian War Museum also had two thirds of the paintings re-photographed for the provision of high resolution scans which were then reproduced in the book I edited to accompany the exhibition: 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918.' The Canadian War Museum did not charge me for the new photography nor for the reproduction of their Munnings paintings. Furthermore, the Munnings Art Museum provided me free of charge with 12 high resolution scans of pencil and charcoal drawings Munnings produced in 1918 while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade; nor did the Museum charge me for the reproduction of these works in the book on which I was working. |
| Impact | Book edited by J. Black and B. Scott, 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918' (published November 2018, ISBN: 978-1-5272-2609-8). Book involves following disciplines: History of Art, military, social and political history and Canadian Studies. Lecture by J. Black, about Munnings and the First World War, for the Friends of the National Army Museum, London (1 hour, December 2018). Lecture by J Black and B. Scott, about Munnings and J.E.B. Seely and the Canadians in the First World War and 1920's, for the general public at the National Army Museum, London (1 hour, January 2019). Have been invited by the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, to give a lecture there about Munnings and the British contribution to the war art commissioned by the Canadians War Memorials Fund, 1917-19. Lecture scheduled for October/November 2019 - when the exhibition is expected to be touring in eastern Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal). |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Exhibition: 'Alred Munnings: War Artist, 1918', National Army Museum, London, 30 November 2018-3 March 2018 |
| Organisation | National Army Museum |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Mid-November 2017 I was approached by the broadcaster Brough Scott MBE who was also a grandson of the commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, 1915-18, Brigadier-General John Edward Bernard 'Galloper Jack' Seely (1868-1947). He was looking for a British art historian willing to work with the National Army Museum, London and the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa on an exhibition exploring the work British artists Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) had painted while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Canadian Forestry Corps in France in 1918 as an official war artist employed by the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Two months later the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham, joined as a partner in the project (it will take a revised form of the exhibition now at the National Army Museum for the period: April-September 2019). I researched the activities of Munnings c. 1912-20 in relevant archives including: the British Library, London; the Imperial War Museum, London; Tate Gallery, London and in the Chelsea Arts Club, London. I drew upon this material to write an eleven thousand word essay on the 44-46 oil paintings Munnings produced while engaged as an official war artist for the Canadians. I also discussed a dozen drawings in pencil and charcoal Munnings produced while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade (February-March 1918) and now in the collection of the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham. In addition I invited five other authors to contribute shorter essays (2.500-3,000 words) to a book that would be published to accompanying and complement the exhibition envisaged to take place on Munnings and the First World War at the National Army Museum, London c. November 2018-March 2019. In addition from the research I undertook within the UK I advised Curators at the National Army Museum, London and the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa on the content of text and context panels to be provided to accompany exhibits at the Munnings Exhibition to open at the National Army Museum, London. I completed my essay on schedule, edited five other essays contributed by: Brough Scott and John Fairley (independent scholars) and Dr. Tim Cook (Canadian War Museum, Ottawa); Pip Dodd (National Army Museum, London) and Dr. Bill Teatheredge (Munnings Art Museum, Dedham) and the resulting book 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918' was ublished in London in time for the opening of the exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' at the National Army Museum, London. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The National Army Museum provided the space in which the exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' was to be held plus two relevant works by Munnings from within its own collection. The overwhelming majority of exhibits, 42 oil paintings by Munnings from 1918 were lent by the Canadian War Museum. Ottawa. The exhibition was to be designed/curated by a Curator each from the respective Museums. The Canadian War Museum found the funds to have the 42 oil paintings first suitably conserved and then transported across the Atlantic to London. The Canadian War Museum also had two thirds of the paintings re-photographed for the provision of high resolution scans which were then reproduced in the book I edited to accompany the exhibition: 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918.' The Canadian War Museum did not charge me for the new photography nor for the reproduction of their Munnings paintings. Furthermore, the Munnings Art Museum provided me free of charge with 12 high resolution scans of pencil and charcoal drawings Munnings produced in 1918 while attached to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade; nor did the Museum charge me for the reproduction of these works in the book on which I was working. |
| Impact | Book edited by J. Black and B. Scott, 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918' (published November 2018, ISBN: 978-1-5272-2609-8). Book involves following disciplines: History of Art, military, social and political history and Canadian Studies. Lecture by J. Black, about Munnings and the First World War, for the Friends of the National Army Museum, London (1 hour, December 2018). Lecture by J Black and B. Scott, about Munnings and J.E.B. Seely and the Canadians in the First World War and 1920's, for the general public at the National Army Museum, London (1 hour, January 2019). Have been invited by the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, to give a lecture there about Munnings and the British contribution to the war art commissioned by the Canadians War Memorials Fund, 1917-19. Lecture scheduled for October/November 2019 - when the exhibition is expected to be touring in eastern Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal). |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | 'Alfred Munnings: The Lost War Artist?' 45-Minute talk for the Friends of the National Army Museum, 4 December 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In my capacity as art historical adviser to the National Army Museum, London, exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' and, as contributor to and editor of the accompanying book 'Alfred Munnings: Memory, The War Horse and the Canadians in 1918', I was invited to give the Friends of the National Army Museum a 45 minute lecture to approximately one hundred and seventeen persons exploring the work Munnings produced as an official war artist attached February-June 1918 to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and then the Canadian Forestry Corps in France. I also sketched in something of Munnings's career before the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 and the considerable part played by his war art in launching his career after his work for the Canadian War Memorial Scheme was exhibited in London at the Royal Academy in January 1919. I argued in particular that Munnings can be regarded as an overlooked, undervalued British Impressionist as well as a 'lost' British First World War artist - lost from a British perspective because he was only employed as a war artist by the Canadians (I touched on the fact that the British Ministry of Information's British War Memorials Committee was keen to employ him as an official artist in France but the war ended before he could be sent to accompany British cavalry units at the Front). On finishing my talk I took questions for just over twenty minutes - since the audience contained a high proportion of ex-service personnel with extensive riding experience the questions were unusually well informed. Even so many within the audience were clearly surprised to learn just how many horses the Cavalry Brigade and Forestry Corps employed as well as by the overall British Expeditionary Force [BEF] in France (over 400,000 horses and mules were in service with the BEF at the time of the Armistice in November 1918). Also the extent to which what Munnings painted was shaped by the fact he was a highly proficient horsemen in his own right. Indeed, this fact helped him win the trust and respect of the ordinary troopers within the Cavalry Brigade and lumberjacks within the Forestry Corps. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://nam.ac.uk/whats-on/alfred-munnings-war-artist-1918 |
| Description | Conference Paper in Ottawa, Canada: 'On The Border Between Two Worlds: Identity and Memory in Eric Kennington's 'The Conquerors/The Victims' (1920).' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Gave a 20 minute paper as part of major three-day annual international conference of the North American Society of Military History with the theme 'Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries' held 14-17 April 2016 at the Canadian Museum of History and at the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa in which I explored a large painting in oils Eric Kennington painted in 1920 for Lord Beaverbrook's Canadian War Memorials Scheme depicting a platoon of Canadian-Scottish Highlanders marching across a 1918 battlefield. From recent research into the work by London-born artist Kennington I was able to provide its owner the Canadian War Museum with new information as to when Kennington painted the work and why his presentation of the Canadian-Scots was so distinctive i.e. his platoon contained two men of evidently Black African origin plus a Native Canadian Inuit while several of the men possesses unnaturally pale facial complexions (this indicated that though they survived the last months of the war on the Western Front, they died from influenza that ravaged their rest camp in Belgium early in 1919). In addition, I was also able to shed new light on the reasons why when Kennington exhibited the work for the first time in the UK, in London in October 1920, he changed its title from the officially conferred 'The Conquerors' to the much less triumphalist 'The Victims' and how he defended this title change in several press interviews he gave at the time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.smh.hq.org/conf/pastmeetings.html |
| Description | Conference Paper in Salford: Stand Fast: Masculinity and Heroism in the Representation of the Great War British Soldier in War Memorials in the North-West of England |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gave a 20 minute paper as part of two-day conference 'The First World War: Commemoration and Memory' held 26-27 February 2016 at the Imperial War Museum of the North, Salford and organised by the First World War Network and the University of Leeds in which I explored the image of the ordinary First World War British soldier, or 'Tommy', on several war memorials located in the north-west of England. Imagery by among others: John Millard, Charles Sargeant Jagger and William Goscombe John on the Wirral Peninsula, Macclesfield and Manchester were considered. I argued that while Millard presented a more conventional image of the Tommy as victim, John and Jagger powerfully presented the British soldier as a thoroughly modern warrior, completely at home with a total war deploying the latest mass produced weaponry. I further argued that John and Jagger's conception of the Tommy was in fact much more in line with the latest research within socio-military history regarding the strengths and failings of the British First World Soldier whereas Millard's more tragic presentation of the Tommy anticipated the so-called 'disillusioned' interpretation of Britain's place which became an unquestioned accepted wisdom in the UK in the 1930's. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://fwwnetwork.wordpress.com |
| Description | Gave Talk, 30 minutes, to Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, Goethe Institute, London, March 2015 about First World War memorial sculpture by C.S. Jagger in London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited by PMSA to give lecture as part of a Study Day open to the General Public entitled 'Sculptors at War, 1914-18'. I gave a talk of about 30 minutes to an audience of 60-70 people - mainly composed of retirees, under graduate and postgraduate history/art history students and artistic practitioners (sculptors, painters, film makers and photographers), plus tv documentary makers. My talk focussed on the experiences of C.S. Jagger as a soldier, 1915-18 and his war memorial sculpture produced thereafter c. 1919-33 in London and elsewhere in the world (in France, Belgium, Egypt and India). I prepared an information sheet exploring Jagger's war memorials, copies of which were available on the day at the Goethe Institute - the venue for the Study Day. A version of the same sheet was available for a fortnight after the Study Day to down load from the Institute's web site. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.3rd-dimensionpmsa.org.uk/pmsa-news/2015-02-12-sculptors-at-war-one-day-conference |
| Description | Interviewed as Expert on British Art and Public Sculpture for Television Documentary, 'War Art with Eddie Redmayne', Foxtrot Films |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interviewed for approx. 1 hour by actor Eddie Redmayne for documentary 'War Art with Eddie Redmayne'; broadcast on ITV1 in May 2015. Part of the interview touched on my favourite First World War memorials in London. I discussed at some length (15-20 minutes) works by: C.S. Jagger; E.H. Kennington; P.L. Clarke; A. Toft and F. Blundstone I had previously researched as part of work for the BBC London Project World War One at Home. A small portion of my remarks concerning the war memorials was broadcast while a much longer section of the same appears on the DVD of the programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.fotxtrotfilms.com/films/war-art-with-eddie-redmayne |
| Description | Invited Public Lecture for the RAF Museum, Hendon: 'Havoc From The Heavens: RAF Air Power as Seen in 1918 Through The Eyes of Official War Artist and Fighter Pilot Sydney Carline.' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a public talk at the RAF Museum, Hendon in August 2016 by the Museum's Aviation Historian. In 45 minutes I explored how imagery produced by Carline c. 1918-20 (and now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London) can be fruitfully related to the latest military history research about the vital contribution made in 1918 by the RAF to destroying organised Ottoman Turkish resistance in Palestine and Austro-Hungarian forces in north-eastern Italy (provinces of Veneto and Venezia-Friuli-Giulia). Indeed, I argued that Carline's imagery reinforce the contention that RAF tactics in those areas in 1918 anticipated by over twenty years the Luftwaffe's significant contribution to the success of the German Army's Blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939-41. Drawing upon my ongoing research into Carline's career, in the archives of the IWM, London and in Tate Britain, I also explored how Carline's imagery also shed a revealing light on the British in the Middle East as the area was in the process of entering the British Empire, following decisions taken at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 i.e. Carline toured Palestine and Mesopotamia/Iraq as they were designated British League of Nations Mandates. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://rafmuseum.org.uk/london/what's-going-on/events/havoc-from-the-heavens |
| Description | Paper (20 minutes): 'Evoking a Forgotten Victory: The Italian Front in 1918 in the Imagery of Sydney Carline (1888-1929), Fighter Pilot and Official War Artist' for the annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, London, December 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Asked to give a twenty minute paper derived from ongoing research into Carline and related to an exhibition I curated January-March 2017 at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art exploring the British experience on the Italian Front in 1918. My paper focussed on Carline's experience as a fighter pilot and instructor in the skies over north-eastern Italy, February-July 1918, during which time he shot down three Austro-Hungarian aircraft and took park in several extremely hazardous ground attack missions during the Austrian offensive of June 1918 ('The Battle of the Solstice'). I then touched on how Carline came to be appointed an official war artist by the RAF Section of the Imperial War Museum - commenting that having only been established in April 1918 the RAF was especially keen to promote awareness of its activities at the front to the British public through art. I emphasised the considerable contribution made by the RAF Wing operating in north-eastern Italy to the utter rout of Austro-Hungarian forces in the last Anglo-Italian offensive of Vittorio-Veneto in October 1918 and concluded with comment as to why British participation in the Italian Front disappeared so quickly from both British and Italian memory after the end of the Great War - the excision of the British contribution to 1918 can be related to how the last year of the war was presented in accounts published under Mussolini's Fascist regime, post October 1922. Carline was no alone in the 1920's in feeling that the success of the British Italian Expeditionary Force was being deliberately underplayed/neglected by Italian authors/historians while the British remained fixated on the defeat of the German Army in France and Flanders in 1918. Answering questions at the end of the session in which I had appeared it was evident that Italians within the audience (of approximately twenty persons) were largely unware that Britain had sent an Expeditionary Force to help Italy in late 1917, nor had they ever heard of Carline, or that the British had numerous war artists attached to various parts of their armed forces with the aim of producing visual art for display within an Imperial War Museum in London. Comment on how Carline viewed the Italian servicemen and civilians he encountered in 1918 led to a general discussion as British perceptions of Italy and its people - and vica versa - in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.asmi.org.uk/index.php/final_programme_ASMI_The_First_World_War_in_Italy-and_Beyond |
| Description | Paper (30 minutes) 'Dodging The Grim Reaper and Old Isaac [Newton]: Sydney Carline, Fighter Pilot and War Artist' for Conference 'Art and the First World War', Imperial War Museum and Southwark Cathedral, London, October 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited to give a paper about a British artist and the First World War for a Conference organised by the Art Department of the Imperial War Museum, London and the Talks Section of Southwark Cathedral. Given my ongoing interest in painter, printmaker and medal designer Sydney Carline (1888-1929) I decided to focus on his experiences as a fighter pilot, 1916-18, first with the Royal Flying Corps and then with the new Royal Air Force and then the art he produced as an official war artist, first in Italy and then in the Middle East, 1918-19. Given I was speaking within a religious institution I drew attention to Carline's guarded adherence to the Church of England whereas his father, mother and younger sister were Christian Scientists and younger brother an agnostic and rather suspicious of organised conventional religion. I was able to draw upon new archival material which only came to light earlier in 2018 (letters to his parents within a private collection) to discuss Sydney's impressions of the peoples he encountered in the Middle East - much of which had only recently come under British control - and of those places in the area with Biblical connections. My talk was devised to appeal to and inform an educated lay audience (about forty people were present as I spoke) without specialist knowledge concerning Carline, British Post-Impressionist Art, the history of British military intervention in Italy and in Palestine/Mesopotamia c. 1918-20 and employment of official war artists for the first time by the British state (through the Ministry of Information and then the Imperial War Museum, London). After giving my paper, I took questions from the audience for about ten minutes and was again questioned about the content of my paper at the end of Conference over a glass of wine. On both occasions my questioners included retired senior citizens, Museum professionals (from the IWM and the Tate) and undergraduate/postgraduate art historians and historians with a particular interest in British art and culture and the Great War. Some of my questioners followed up with e-mails to me indicating they had not heard of Carline until attending my paper, nor were they aware of the programme of official British war artists 1917-19, nor of just how many men the UK had sent to fight the Austro-Hungarians in Italy and the Ottoman Turks in Palestine in 1918. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://isbu-multimedia-journalists.co.uk/taviot/2018/8/10/21/southwark-cathedral |
| Description | Paper for College Art Association annual Conference (New York, February 2017): 'We Are Engaged In The Battle of Life: Social Darwinism and Imperialism in the First World War Memorial Sculpture of Eric Kennington and Charles Sargeant Jagger.' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Gave 20 minute paper at the annual CAA Conference, this year held in Manhattan, as part of session entitled: 'Conflict as Cultural Catalyst in Twentieth Century British Art.' Drawing upon my ongoing research into First World War memorial sculpture in London and the south-east of England by Kennington and Jagger, I argued that there imagery of the British soldier in action on the Western Front was as much informed by their pre-war reading of texts by Rudyard Kipling, Jack London and HG Wells as by their own experiences of coming under fire while in uniform and as official war artists. I also commented on their shared enthusiasm for and belief in the British Empire; both were convinced that the Empire, which post-1918 had been been larger, would demand further struggle and sacrifice from the British male to ensure its continued viability and existence. I finally explored how their later imagery of the British tommy, from the 1930's, can be related to contemporary debates as to whether the war had been nothing more than an exercise in futility as well as the extent to which artists such as Kennington and Jagger drew upon the examples of past Imperial sculpture, from Assyria, Egypt and Rome, in the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum for inspiration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://conference.collegeart.org/programs/conflict-as-cultural-catalyst-in-britain |
| Description | Public Lecture (1 Hour) on Paul Nash and the First World War for the Friends of Millbank, London, March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As a consequence of my work for 'Our Place in the First World War', I had become interested in Paul Nash's experiences during the First World War, where he painted in the UK, c. 1918-20 many of his now celebrated images in oils of the trenches in the vicinity of Ypres and the prolonged periods of acute mental anguish and breakdown he endured during the 1920's while living on the south coast of England. Evidently he had suffered from what was then known as 'shell-shock' and is now termed Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. As the Friends of Millbank is an organisation formed of retired members of the Royal Army Medical Corps and related nursing bodies (Doctors, Surgeons, Dentists, Ward Nurses and Nursing Sisters, Medical Orderlies, Stretcher-Bearers and Ambulance Drivers) my talk for them focussed on what Paul Nash had actually done and experienced in France and Flanders as an infantry officer in 1917 and then as a war artist, 1917-19 and the significant impact this had on his physical and mental health. I discussed the imagery he produced as an official war artist - especially those examples on display at the time in the 'Paul Nash' exhibition at Tate Britain - alongside letters from Nash at the front to his wife and to his younger brother, John. About a third of my lecture was devoted to work Nash produced after the war had ended which superficially was not concerned with the conflict. I argued, however, that this post-war imagery was in many respects deeply informed by Nash's post-war mental and physical instability. Post lecture questions suggested that my interpretation was on the whole found credible by members of the audience who had formerly been mental health care professionals. The majority within my audience were not aware of the extent of the British official war art programme during the First World War, nor that some of the war art commissioned touched on the subject of 'shell-shock' and that some of the artists involved had been suffering from the condition even as they worked for the Ministry of Information. Considerable interest was expressed then and afterwards, via e-mail, as to the wide ranging but usually ineffective treatments for 'shell-shock' available to the minority (overwhelmingly ex-officers) who sought help after the war for their 'nerves.' Nash, for example, had sought help from several medical professionals with little tangible success - he found that time and absorption with the artistic/creative process affected an enduring cure. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.ual.force.com/event/2017/3/24/Bitter-Truths-Paul-Nash |
| Description | Public Lecture (1 hour) on Charles Sargeant Jagger, War Memorials and the Western Front for the Western Front Association (Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Branch), April 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | During my connection with 'Our Place in the First World War' I became particularly interested in how local communities perceived war memorials in their vicinity - were they structures/art works to which they paid any attention beyond the annual Armistice Day commemoration or Remembrance Sunday gathering? Consequently, I was delighted to be asked to give a lecture about Bedford's Great War memorial by Charles Sargeant Jagger MC (1885-1934) for the Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire Branch of the Western Front Association. There was a good turn out of the night , with an audience of over ninety. My lecture initially covered Jagger's career before the outbreak of war, his experiences as an infantry officer at Gallipoli (Suvla Bay) in 1915 and then in Flanders and northern France in 1917-18. I then moved on to focus on his memorial in Bedford - a female knight crusader trampling the dragon of German Militarism and also running the beast through with a sword thrust - and why it was so different in character to the other war memorials he produced at the time, c. 1921-23, convincing representations of British infantrymen at West Kirby (1922), Paddington Station (1922), for the S & J Watts Warehouse, Manchester (now the Britannia Hotel) (1922) and for the Memorial to the Royal Regiment of Artillery at Hyde Park Corner, London (1921-25). I argued that in Bedford's case the influence of the war memorial committee, comprised almost entirely of men too old to have seen front service, had been key to determining the memorial design Jagger eventually produced (the figure unveiled was his fourth suggestion to the committee). However, the memorial committee's determination to have a female figure in approximately Dark Age Anglo-Saxon armour encouraged Jagger to produce a design that for him was unusually symbolic and encouraged him to hark back to a more florid pre-war Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau style he had jettisoned in 1918 on becoming a British official war artist. Post-lecture questions from my audience, which lasted about half an hour, suggested that while many were very knowledgeable about the military history of the Western Front knew little about the official British war art programme of 1917-18 and were particularly interested in the process by which their forebears in Bedford had gone about commissioning a contemporary sculptor to design and make a war memorial. There was lively discussion and agreement that artists/sculptors of today would not be capable of making a work as impressive as that conceived and executed by Jagger in Bedford (and London) in the 1920s. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/branches/united-kingdom/hertfordshire-and-bedfordshire/charle... |
| Description | Public Lecture (1 hour) on Sydney Carline and British Airpower over Italy and Palestine in 1918 for the First World War Historical Aviation Society at the Estorick Collection, London, March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of my duties as Curator of the Exhibition 'War in the Sunshine: The British in Italy, 1917-18' I was invited to lecture to a group from Cross and Cockade International (The First World War Aviation Historical Society). My talk focussed on the activities of Sydney Carline as an operational fighter pilot with the RAF in Italy, February-July 1918 as well as the significant contribution made by the five RAF squadrons based in Italy to the eventual defeat of Austro-Hungarian forces in the north-east of the country in October-November 1918. I also discussed in detail the major part played by six RAF squadrons in the rout of Ottoman Turkish forces in Palestine by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by General Sir Edmund Allenby in September 1918 and episodes from that Campaign painted by Sydney Carline during a tour he made of the battlefields of Palestine and Syria in January-March 1919 as an official war artist working for the RAF Visual Arts Section of the Ministry of Information. In my remarks I sought to bring together my new research into Sydney Carline's career with the most recent military history concerning the Italian and Palestine campaigns of 1918. I argued that Carline's imagery in certain respects illustrated and anticipated the devastating application of air power to facilitate the destruction of retreating forces more commonly associated with the campaigns of the Second World War. Though my audience was largely comprised of members of the public with a specialist knowledge of First World War aircraft and airpower, their post-lecture questions revealed that most were unaware of the considerable part the RAF had played in the defeat of the armies of Austria-Hungary and of the Ottoman Empire in the autumn of 1918. They had also not heard of Sydney Carline nor were possess much awareness of the British Ministry of Information's official war art programme in 1918 and how examples of the official war art commissioned (including many works I discussed by Sydney Carline and included in my exhibition at the Estorick Collection) were exhibited to the British public in 1919-20. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.crossandcockade.com/Blog.asp/London-Event |
| Description | Public Lecture (1 hour) on the British in Italy, 1917-18 as revealed in the photographs of Ernest Brooks and William J. Brunell at the Estorick Collection, March 2017 for the British-Italian Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As Curator of the exhibition 'War in the Sunshine: The British in Italy, 1917-18' at the Estorick Collection, London, January-March 2017, I was asked by the British-Italian Society to give its members a lecture on an aspect of the exhibition. I chose to focus (one) on the reaction to the Italian people and landscape expressed in the unofficial sketches of Sydney Carline as well as in the imagery he produced August-November 1918 in his capacity as a British official war artist and (two) how British soldiers from the ranks were presented as interacting with Italian soldiers and civilians in the official war photography of Ernest Brooks and William Joseph Brunell ('War in the Sunshine' contained fifty photographs by Brooks and Brunell from c. December 1917-January 1919 which I had selected from the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London). I was particularly interested in how the two photographers depicted the north-eastern Italian theatre of operations as a rural/non-mechanised land that struck many British observers at the time as supposedly 'primitive' and 'backward' when compared to their recollections of the British countryside. Furthermore, the imagery produced by Brooks and Brunell predominantly did not present the British soldier as a fearsome warrior but more as light hearted any easy going individuals who enjoyed flirting with Italian adult females and playing games/larking about with Italian children. After-lecture questions and e-mail enquires revealed that the majority of my audience knew little about the British presence in Italy during the First World War (they were much more aware of British forces in Italy in 1943-45), nor were they aware that there had been official British war artists and photographers operating in the country in 1917-18, nor did they know that photographs taken by Brooks and Brunell had been widely exhibited in the UK in 1919-20 but little interest had been displayed in them when a selection of their photographs had been offered to the Italian War Ministry in 1919 (from early that year the Ministry was actively engaged in trying to marginalise the significance of the considerable British contribution to the victory over Austro-Hungarian forces at Vittorio Vento in October 1918). About half of my audience were Italian nationals living in London/the south-east of England and they were particularly appreciative of my talk/exhibition which revealed aspects of the Italian experience of the First World War which were largely absent from how the conflict had been commonly presented in Italy since 2015 - the 100th anniversary of Italy declaring war on Austria-Hungary. A simplified version of my talk was reproduced in the autumn edition of the Society's Magazine: 'Revista' and at the urging of the Society the exhibition was covered by several Italian publications in March 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.british-italian.org/warrior-war-artist-sydney-carline-skies-Italy-1918 |
| Description | Public Lecture (45 Minutes) on Sydney Carline as Fighter Pilot and War Artist in Italy in 1918 at the Estorick Collection, London, February 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public Lecture of approximately 45 minutes duration given in my capacity as Curator of the Exhibition 'War In the Sunshine: The British in Italy, 1917-18' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London. The audience numbered about 50 persons and was comprised of: retired members of the general public with some individuals in Higher Education at Undergraduate and Postgraduate Level. Latter were studying/researching: 20th Century History of Art; the History of the First World War; Italy and the First World War. My talk focussed on the life and career of painter/printmaker/medal designer Sydney Carline (1888-1929), in particular: his experiences as a fighter pilot in France and Italy, 1916-18, in the RFC and RAF and the work he produced in Italy as an official war artist attached to the RAF Section of the Ministry of Information, London. My remarks were delivered in front of a selection I had made of Carline's war art loaned from the Imperial War Museum, London. After my talk I took questions from my audience for about 20 minutes - the majority at the time and in e-mail communications thereafter indicated they had not been at all aware that Britain had armed forces in Italy in 1918; not had they heard of Sydney Carline or were aware that the UK had an official war art programme during the last two years of the Great War. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.estorickcollection.com/exhibitions/by/sydney-carline |
| Description | Public Lecture (50 minutes) for the National Army Museum, London on 'Alfred Munnings; War Artist in 1918', 9 January 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As art historical advisor to the National Army Museum exhibition 'Alfred Munnings: War Artist, 1918' I was asked by the Museum to give a talk there to approximately fifty five members of the General Public who had paid £15 a ticket to be there that evening (9 January 2019). I touched on earlier and later periods in the artist's career but focussed most of my time on his work as a war artist - commenting on the other artists who were working in France at the roughly the same time as Munnings as official war artists for the Canadian War Memorial Scheme and for the British Ministry of Information such as: Wyndham Lewis, William Orpen, Augustus John, Richard Jack, Eric Kennington and William Rothenstein. Drawing upon unpublished archival material held by the Seely family (related to the then Commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade Brigadier-General J.E.B. 'Galloper Jack' Seely), I also discussed the friendship between Munnings and Jack Seely which helped in large measure Munnings to be accepted by other officers within the Brigade and then by the other ranks under their command. I moved onto how his images of the Forestry Corps at work reveal his love for the French countryside which dated back to the early years of the Twentieth Century as an art student occasionally attending the Academie Julian in Paris. I concluded with comment on the only war memorial statue Munnings made: in 1919-20 in memory of cavalry officer Lieutenant Edward Horner, killed in action in November 1917. The bronze statue of Horner mounted on his favourite charger in St. Andrews Anglican Church, Mells, Somerset, served, I argued, to remind the observer of the disproportionate losses suffered by the British aristocracy and landed gentry during the First World War and that while officers generally had more comfortable living conditions at the Front in France they faced a much higher likelihood of being killed or seriously wounded than the rank and file. I also took the opportunity to argue there was much more to Munnings that the caricature of the drunken buffoon powerfully conveyed by the BBC radio recording of his infamous tirade against Modern Art delivered at the Royal Academy banquet in April 1949. Indeed, on the basis of his war art and work he painted c. 1905-25 he ought to be considered one of Britain's most talented Impressionist painters of the day. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://nam.ac.uk/whats-on/alfred-munnings-memory-war-horse-and-canadians-1918 |
| Description | Public Talk (45 minutes) for the Department of Prints and Drawings, the British Museum: 'Truth from the Trenches: C.R.W. Nevinson (1889-1946), Printmaking and the Great War.' British Museum, London July 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited by the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum to give this public talk as in 2014 I had published 'C.R.W. Nevinson: The Complete Prints.' My talk was to take place to complement a display at the Museum, from July-September 2018, of a group of drypoints, mezzotints and lithographs Nevinson had donated to the Prints and Drawings Department in March 1918. The majority were related to imagery of the First World War Nevinson had created in 1917-18 as an official war artist working for what became the Ministry of Information. The display concluded with a number of prints inspired by two visits Nevinson made to New York in 1919-20 and which he donated to the Museum later in the 1920's (or were purchased during that decade by Campbell Dodgson - the then Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the Museum. Despite it being very hot the afternoon I spoke, and air conditioning was not available, Room 90a (where the display of some thirty of Nevinsons prints was held) was full with a most engaged and attentive audience - just under fifty people. I described how Nevinson came to take up printmaking in 1916 and what training he had received in the various techniques. I then explored why he translated some of his war compositions into a print and why his prints were so enthusiastically received when he exhibited them c. 1916-19. I concluded that by the early 1920's he deserved to better known for his prints than for his oil paintings and that, indeed, he should be considered one of the great British printmakers of the first half of the Twentieth Century. I answered questions from the audience for a good half an hour afterwards and they revealed there was still a great deal of interest in British art and the First World War within the public - not at all bored with the First World War despite nearly four years worth of commemorative events, exhibitions etc. Pleasure was expressed that the British Museum had mounted this display along with bafflement that the Imperial War Museum did not seem at all interested in British art and the First World War. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calender/event/truth_from_the_trenches |
| Description | Talk (45 minutes) at the Hepworth, Wakefield, March 2015 on First World War Memorial Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger in London and in South Yorkshire |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited by Chief Curator of the Hepworth to give talk of approx. 45 minutes aimed at middlebrow general public (educated but non-specialist) on the topic of the Jagger war memorial bas-relief in the Gallery's collection in relation to other war memorials he produced in London, for locations in his native South Yorkshire and in the North-West of England (Wirral Peninsula and Manchester). Particular focus was placed on the figure of the ordinary British soldier or 'tommy' and relationship to the contemporary artistic representation of the British urban working class. My audience predominately consisted of retired individuals with a sprinkling of sixth form students and undergraduate/post graduate students studying at institutions in the vicinity such as Leeds University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/what'son/jagger/talks |
| Description | Talk on Londons First World War Memorials for BBC London Radio, 28 June 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gave Three Half an Hour talks as part of the BBC Radio London 'The First World War at Home' Roadshow and Armed Forces Day, Woolwich Barracks Park, 28 June 2014. I discussed about two dozen First World War memorials in London with fascinating stories that the general public may not be at all aware of - even though they may have walked, driven, cycled past the memorials many times. I described the memorials as 'hidden gems' that were 'strangely invisible.' After each talk I took questions from a BBC London Radio presenter and then from members of the audience - which included members of the general public, military veterans and students at secondary school and in higher education working on projects connected with the First World War. I was able to focus on Great War sculptors whose work in London ought to be much better known and appreciated such as: Charles Sargeant Jagger; Philip Lindsay Clark; Gilbert Ledward; Ferdinand Blundstone and Adrian Jones. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/ww1-woolwich |
| Description | Talk on Soldier-Sculptors and First World War Memorials in London, for the Twentieth Century Society, November 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Drawing upon recent research for BBC Radio London and the AHRC 'World War One at Home' Project I gave a talk of one hour's duration in November 2014 for members of the Twentieth Century Society and of the general public on the First World War memorial sculpture in London by three 'soldier-sculptors' i.e. sculptors with combat experience: Eric Kennington (24th Infantry Division Memorial in Battersea Park, 1922-24), Philip Lindsay Clark (St. Saviours Anglican Church, Borough High Street, 1920-22) and Charles Sargeant Jagger (Royal Artillery Memorial, Hyde Park Corner, 1921-25). After giving my talk I took questions for about half an hour from members of the audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.c20society.org.uk/publications/lectures/2014 |