Existing comment:
Muirhead Bone
Building Ships: A Shipyard Seen from a Big Crane (from The Great War: Britain's Efforts and Ideals), ca 1917
In May 1916, the British government appointed Bone the first official War Artist. The London-based draftsman, already well regarded for his picturesque architectural drawings and etchings, completed two tours of duty on the Somme. Here, Bone depicts an immense naval shipyard from a dramatic aerial perspective. Multitudes of industrial workers, lightly sketched and minute atop cranes and dockside, underline the magnitude of Great Britain's war preparations.
Traveling without restriction along British frontlines, Bone never engaged in combat while creating his vivid record of the Great War. Two hundred of his drawings were published in The Western Front (1916-17), a portfolio featured in the adjacent display case. |