Saturday, May 23, 2020

Louis Delozanne ( - 1918) – French artist

Just one example of Louis' work
Louis was born in Serzy, near Rheims, France and in WW1 he joined the 106th Regiment of Artillery of the French Army as a medic and travelled with them for four years.   He took his pencil with him, along with a notebook and made drawings of what he saw on the Western Front. 

After finding some colouring crayons, Louis was able to make some colour pictures.  His Regiment was deployed in Verdun, Bar le Duc and les Eparges.

Just twelve days before the end of the war, Louis was killed at Saint-Germer de Fly in the Oise – another very talented young man lost to the ‘war to end all wars’.

With thanks to Béatrice Keller for finding these links and posting on the Facebook Group Artists of the First World War

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/grand-est/histoires-14-18-louis-delozanne-dessinateur-du-front-1149063.html

http://14-18.documentation-ra.com/2020/04/les-carnets-de-campagne-de-louis-delozanne/?fbclid=IwAR35EHQA-TQDKJsGejXsBRR0tvkdy5yZwCOQa9w30j9AA7M_15-YjC_p2Cs

https://reims1418.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/video-louis-delozanne-le-dessinateur-du-front/


Friday, May 22, 2020

Richard Caton Woodville Junior, RI (1856 - 1927) - British artist and illustrator

2nd Manchesters capturing a German Battery, April 1917
Richard Caton Woodville Junior, RI (Royal Institute of Oil Painters) (7 January 1856 – 17 August 1927) was a British artist and illustrator and one of the most prolific and effective painters of battle scenes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   His father was Richard Caton Woodville Senior, who was also an artist. 

Richard Junior studied art in Düsseldorf, Germany, before spending time studying art in Russia and Paris. He worked as an illustrtor for publications - the “Illustrated London News”, where he soon gained a reputation as a talented reporter and writer - and for “Cornhill Magazine”, “The Strand Magazine” and “The Tatler”.

Caton was commissioned to cover the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), and the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War (1882), the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902), and the First World War (1914 – 1919). Richard Jr. wrote some of his memoirs in 1914, entitled WRandom RecollectionsW. He was deeply interested in the army and joined the Royal Berkshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1879, staying with them until 1914, when he joined the National Reserve as a Captain.

Three of Caton's WW1 paintings went on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in London: The 2nd Batt. Manchester Regiment taking six guns at dawn near St. Quentin, Entry of the 5th Lancers into Mons, and Halloween, 1914 and Stand of the London Scottish on Messines Ridge (London Scottish Regiment Museum Trust), which was exhibited in the year of his death, 1927.

Richard's WW1 paintings were:

The First VC of the European War, (1914 – National Army Museum): Captain Francis Grenfell, 9th Lancers, the first VC of World War I to be gazetted, winning the VC at Audregnies, Belgium, 24th August 1914
The Last Call (Trumpeter falling at Charge of Light Brigade), (1915 – The Queen's Royal Hussars)
The Piper of Loos, (King's Own Scottish Borderers Regimental Association)
The Battle of the Somme, (1917 – Guards Museum)
The 2nd Batt. Manchester Regiment taking six guns at dawn near St. Quentin, (1918 – Duke of Lancaster's Regiment)
Entry of the 5th Lancers into Mons, (1919 – Queen's Royal Lancers)
The Charge of the 9th Lancers at Moncel, 7 September 1914, (1921 – 9th Queen's Royal Lancers)
Halloween, 1914: Stand of the London Scottish on Messines Ridge (1927 – London Scottish Regiment Museum Trust)

Source:  Wikipedia

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Colin Gill (1892 - 1940) - British artist

Self Portrait 
Colin Unwin Gill was born in Bexleyheath, south-east London on 12th May 1892, the eldest of three sons born to George Joseph Gill, a civil servant with the Metropolitan Water Board, and his wife Sarah Sharey Gill, nee Driver.

Colin studied art at the Slade Art School in London and in 1913 won a scholarship to the British School in Rome.  He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as Second Lieutenant in WW1 and served on the Western Front.

Seconded to the Royal Engineers as a Camouflage Officer, he was invalided back to Britain in March 1918 due to gas poisoning.   After recuperation on the Isle of Wight, Colin returned to the Western Front as an official war artist. After the war, he returned to Rome to finish his studies. 

Colin painted murals and portraits but is perhaps best remembered for his WW1 work.  He died in South Africa while working on an assignment on 16th November 1940.


Painting: Gunnery Officers correcting their Battery fire by field telephone from a disused trench in No Man's Land.

Sources:  Wikipedia and "Images of the Great War" by Lawrence Dunn, published by Austin Macaulay Publisher, London, 2015.