Norah Neilson Gray (16 June 1882 – 27 May 1931) - Scottish artist

Nora Neilson Gray
Self Portrait, 1918

Born in Helensburgh in 1882, Nora's p arents were George Gray, a Glasgow ship owner, and his wife, Norah Gray, nee Neilson. 

During the First World War, Norah volunteered to serve with the Scottish Women's Hospitals and was sent to France..  As you can see, Nora managed to find time to paint and sketch. She offered a painting entitled “Hôpital Auxilaire 1918” showing the SWH Hospital in Royaumont Abbey to the Imperial War Museum but the Women's Work Sub-committee of the Museum refused to accept it and requested a painting showing a woman doctor instead.  

Shown below is Norah’s second painting of Royaumont Abbaye, entitled “The Scottish Women's Hospital In The Cloister of the Abbaye at Royaumont - Dr Frances Ivens inspecting a French patient” was accepted by the IWM in 1920.

Royaumont Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey, located in northern France near Asnières-sur-Oise in Val-d'Oise, approximately 30 km north of Paris. From January 1915 to March 1919 the Abbeywas used as a voluntary hospital – L’Hôpital Auxiliaire 301 – which was operated by The Scottish Women's Hospitals(SWH), under the direction of the French Red Cross. It was especially noted for its performance treating soldiers involved in the Battle of the Somme. After the war, the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frances Ivens CBE MS(Lond) ChM(Liverp) FRGOG (1870–1944), was awarded membership of the French Légion d'honneur.

Nellie Issac (1886 – 1955) - artist

With thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron for discovering Nellie for  us

Nellie Elizabeth Isaac was born in 1886 in Hampstead, London, UK, the birth being registered in the third quarter of that year. Her father, Percy Lewis Isaac, was a naval architect and marine engineer. Her paternal Grandfather was the Liverpool artist and lithographer John Raphael Isaac (1809 – 1870), who became medallist to Prince Albert. Her mother – Florence Maud Isaac, nee Alexander – was born in Clapham.   John Raphael Isaac did commercial work for some of the major shipping companies - Holt Shipping Line and the White-Star (Packet) Line (Liverpool-Melbourne). These commissions could explain how his son Percy became a naval architect and shipbuilder.

Nellie’s siblings were Rose Amelia, who also became an artist, and John Robert. According to the 1901 Census, the family lived in Dennington Park Road in West Hampstead. By the 1911 Census Nellie and her sister were both living with their parents, with their occupations listed as artists.

A Performance in the factory Canteen
Theatre

During the First World War, both Nellie and Rose Isaac gave up their art and design business and worked in the factory of Gordon, Watney and Co., Aeronautical Engineers, in Weybridge, Surrey fro two years. 

The factory specialised in the repair and overhaul ofmotor vehicles. The factory’s wartime production included aeronautics and munitions and the factory also worked with the Canadian army in refurbishing some of their vehicles.

The Imperial War Museum came into existence in London in 1917 and in April of that year Agnes Conway – the daughter of the first Honorary Director of the Museum, Sir Martin Conway – was invited to form a Women’s Work Sub-Committee. Nellie Isaac contacted Agnes Conway to contribute some of her work to the effort. 

Receiving the News of the Armistice,
November 11th 1918

Paintings by Nellie Isaac h eld by the Imperial War Museum include:

A Performance in the Factory Canteen Theatre

Factory Tug O’ War 

Receiving the News of the Armistice, November 11th 1918

Armistice Week in the Canteen. November 12th, 1918: A victory dance organized for women workers. Bunting hangs from the ceiling. A large Union Jack at the far end.

Sources:

Find my Past

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699 – Remembering British Women In WW1 – The Home Front and Overseas created by Debbie Cameron 

https://www.josieholford.com/women-artists-of-ww1-nellie-isaac/

https://matt-houghton.squarespace.com/john-raphael-isaac

NOTE: Debbie Cameron’s Facebook Pages: Remembering British Women in WW1 – The Home Front and Overseas  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699/

and

RBL Women’s WW1 Remembrance Badge https://www.facebook.com/groups/1767775906637896/

Keith Henderson (1883–1982) – Scottish artist

With thanks to Ognyan Hristov for finding this artist for us

"A Wrecked Railway Bridge
Near The Hindenburg Line
Near Villers Guislain", 1917 

Born in Scotland and brought up in Aberdeenshire and in London, Keith was one of three children born to George MacDonald Henderson, a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, and his wife, Constance Helen, née Keith. He attended Orme Square School in London and Marlborough College, before going on to study art at the Slade School of Art, London and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.

During the First World War, Keith served as a Captain with the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry on the Western Front. He painted several works while there and also wrote a book about his experiences entitled “Letters to Helen: Impressions of an Artist on the Western Front” which was published in 1917. 'Helen' was his wife - Helen Knox-Shaw – they were married in 1917 at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

"A Twelve-inch Gun", 1917

During the Second World War, Keith Henderson was one of the first two artists, along with Paul Nash, appointed as a full-time salaried artists to the Air Ministry by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC. Henderson was sent to RAF bases in Scotland.

Rudolf Helmut Sauter (1895 – 1977) – British/German artist, illustrator, poet

Portrait of Rudolf by
his Father Johann Georg Sauter

Rudolf was born on 9th May 1895. His parents were Blanche Lilian, nee Galsworthy and Johann Georg Saunter, an artist from Bavaria in Germany. Educated at Harrow School, Rudolf studied art in London and Munich.  He was also a writer and later joined the PEN Club – founded by British writer Catherine Amy Dawson Scott in 1921. Rudolf’s Mother, Blanche Lilian, was the elder sister of the writer and poet John Galsworthy.  Rudolf illustrated an edition of his Uncle’s work.

During WW1, Rudolf was interned in Alexandra Palace Internment camp, north London, and Frith Hill camp at Frimley, Surrey.

Rudolf showed his work in London, the provinces, Paris at the Salon, where he gained an Hon. Mention, and widely in America. Much of Sauter’s work was destroyed in a fire in the early 1980s, yet a lot is in private hands in South Africa.

A painting by Rudolf Sauter

An Aeroplane viewed from the
Alexandra Palace Internment Camp
Compound 

Rudolf died on 12th June 1977.

Gerald Maurice Burn (1862-1945) - British artist

Gerald Maurice Burn was an artist and engraver. He exhibited at the Royal Academy 1881-1887 and was working on ship portraits in 1915. In the "Evening Post" for 29 January 1913, Page 4, he is described as "an artist residing at Amberley, near Arundel".

Painting of ‘HMAS Australia’, 1913 oil on canvas, signed and dated ‘Gerald M. Burn, 1913'. Artist: Gerald Maurice Burn (British, 1862-1945).

A painting of the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918 by Charles John de Lacy (1856 – 1929)

A painting of the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918 by Charles John de Lacy (1856 –  1929), who was one of the foremost British marine artists of his period. He was especially known for his warship imagery and was regularly commissioned by Elswick, Tyne and Wear shipbuilder W. G. Armstrong Whitworth.

The picture shows HMS Vindictive - a British Arrogant-class cruiser built at Chatham Dockyard. She was launched on 9 December 1897 and completed in 1899.  It looks as though the other vessel may be one of the Mersey Ferries that took part in the Raid.

Early in 1918 HMS Vindictive was fitted out for the Zeebrugge Raid. Most of her guns were replaced by Howitzers, flame-throwers and mortars. On 23 April 1918 she was in fierce action at Zeebrugge when she went alongside the Mole, and her upperworks were badly damaged by gunfire.  Her Captain, Alfred Carpenter, was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions during the raid. The painting hangs in the Britannia Royal Naval College.

With thanks to the Rev. Nicholas Pye @RevdPye on Twitter for finding this painting.

Stepan Feodorovich Kolesnikov (1879-1955) - Ukrainian artist

Stepan Feodorovich Kolesnikov lived and worked in Tsarist Russia and the USSR.

Three paintings by Stepan found for us by Ognyan Hristov and posted on the Facebook Group

Artists of the First World War https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

′′ On alert (post) ", 1914, pencil and guash on paper.

′′ Messenger in the Caucasian Mountains ", 1915, ink and guash on cardboard.

“Easter on the front ", 1915/16, pencil and guash on paper.

British artists sent to the South (Macedonian or Thessaloniki) Front. They painted between 1916 and 1918

With thanks to Ognyan Hristov for finding these artists and their work 

and for his help in finding other artists of WW1

1. ′′ The front near the river Vardar ", 1917, watercolor;

Artist: Joseph Denovan Adam Jnr (1881-1935), son of Joseph Denovan Adam (1841-1896).

2. ′′ Hours on post ", 1917, watercolor; 

Artist: Joseph Denovan Adam Jnr (1881-1935)

3. ′′ Close to the positions near Lake Doiran ", 1917, watercolor;

Artist: Robert Houston (1891), Scottish.  Served in the British army in Macedonia in 1917 Located in Thessaloniki, draws numerous watercolors and drawings from the areas of Thessaloniki, Lake Doiran and Belasitsa Mountain.

4. ′′ Transportation of injured in the village of Small ′′ (Aegean Macedonia), 1916, oil;

Аrtist: Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959).   24-year-old Spencer was sent to Macedonia with 68th Field Ambulance. In 1917, 1917 he voluntarily transferred to infantry division of 7th Battalion, the Berkshire Regiment.   He fought against German and Bulgarian troops before being disabled by the army after permanent malaria attacks.

5. ′′ Lake Doiran", 1917, watercolor

Artist: Gerard Chowne (1875-1917).   Born in India, Chowne studied at the Slade School from 1893 to 1899, as well as in Rome and Paris. He began to exhibit at the New English Art Club in 1903 and became a member two years later, when he also commenced teaching painting at Liverpool University.  Chowne fought in Macedonia during the Great War, where he was appointed Captain in the 9th East Lancs Regiment.  He was wounded and died in Macedonia from his wounds. During his time in Macedonia, he painted a series of watercolors depicting Thessaloniki, the Macedonian Front and various military scenes.

6. ′′ Down!", 1918, oil (De Havilland 2 single-seater scout, downloads Fokker monoplan in Thessaloniki);

Аrtist: William Thomas Wood (1878 - 1958) – Mentioned in Despatches

During the First World War, William served as an Acting Corporal in the Royal Flying Corps, attached to Salonika Balloon Company where he was a  kite-balloon observer.  William was appointed Official War Artist in The Balkans in 1918.  Because of that, Arthur J. Mann asked William to illustrate his book “The Salonika Front” (A. & C. Black, London, 1920).

The Salonika Campaign.  

From 1915 to 1918, British troops were part of a multi-national Allied force fighting against the Bulgarians and their allies in the Balkans. Although disease and the harsh conditions took a heavy toll, they eventually brought the campaign to a successful conclusion.

If you are interested in the Salonika Campaign of the First World War, why not join the Salonika Campaign Society?  Formed to promote interest in the Salonika Campaign, which was fought in northern Greece, Serbia and Albania from 1915 to 1918, the aim of the Society is to perpetuate the memory of those of all nations who served, whether they were members of the armed forces, medical services or civilian staff.  The Society does not seek to glorify war and is neither politically nor commercially motivated. 

Application for membership is welcomed from anyone of like mind.

https://salonikacampaignsociety.org.uk/

Lunt Roberts (1894-1981) – British artist

 With thanks to Nick Lock of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum for finding this artist for us

Richard John Lunt Roberts was born in Secunderabad, Madras, India, on 28th August 1894. His father, Richard Roberts, was Welsh and he worked as a storekeeper on the Indian Railway. His mother, Gertrude Annie Lunt Roberts, was born in Australia to British parents.

In 1901 the family, including a younger brother and sister, lodged in a farmer's house in Aber, Caernarvonshire, Wales; by 1911 they had moved into a home of their own in Llandudno. 

Lunt Roberts joined the London Sketch Club, of which he later became President, in 1913, between then and 1964 was a cartoonist and illustrator. 

He joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers during the First World War, initially as a Private.  He was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant into the 6th (Carnarvonshire and Anglesey) Battalion on 24th June 1915 and served in Gallipoli. 

After the War Lunt  worked as an illustrator.  He married Hilda Plant in Lewisham in 1924. and died  in Kingston Upon Thames in 1981.

Gallipoli sketch and "An age of Invention" by Lunt Roberts

Sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD and https://ukcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Lunt_Roberts_(1894-1981)

Christopher David Williams RBA (7 January 1873 – 1934) - Welsh artist

 Mametz Wood, commemorating the Welsh during the Battle of the Somme July 1916 - a painting by Christopher Williams 

About four thousand men from the Welsh Division were killed or wounded in the attack on Mametz Wood that took place in July 1916, during the First Battle of the Somme.  The wood still stands today and there is a Memorial to the 38th Division nearby.   Mametz Wood was a large area, overgrown and well defended by experienced German soldiers.  The first attack on 7th July 1916 failed to reach the wood.   Welsh soldiers, who were expected to make an assault o n German lines, were machine-gunned as they moved across open fields. 

Born in Maesteg, Wales, Christopher's father Evan Williams wanted his son to study medicine and to be a doctor but Christopher had other ides.

Self portrait by
Christopher Williams

For a poem about the Welsh at Mametz Wood by Welsh poet Llewelyn Wyn Gfiffith, who served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on the Western Front, please see the Forgotten Poets of the First World War weblog post of 23rd June 2021.  The poem was found for us by Nick Lock of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum which is in Caernarfon Castle in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, North Wales.  To find out more and book a visit please visit their website https://www.rwfmuseum.org.uk/index.php

Arthur Jacob Lyons (1873 – 1948) – British artist

Born in Kensington in 1873 – birth registered in fourth quarter -  “The St Ives Times” reports Arthur as staying in the town in July 1914, having arrived from Paris, and described him as a "medalist of the Salon", after receiving a medal for a painting in 1909. He joined the British Red Cross when war broke out, but was later seconded into the Army as an administrator. 

Arthur's painting of a Red Cross nurse in a garden was painted while he was recovering from an illness at Osborne convalescent home during the First World War. He joined the British Red Cross when war broke out, but was later seconded into the Army as an administrator. 

https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?fname=Arthur+&sname=Lyons&id=139204&first=true&last=true

https://museumandarchives.redcross.org.uk/objects/10091

Edith Maud Drummond Hay R.R.C. 2nd Class 3.6.19 (1872 – 1960) – artist and WW1 volunteer

Edith Maud Drummond Hay was born on 28th February 1872 in Kinfauns in Perthshire, Scotland. Her parents were Henry Maurice Drummond Hay, a Colonel in the Army who was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist, and his wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Richardson Hay.  On their marriage, Henry took the family name of Hay, adding it to his own surname.   Edith was one of four sisters - the others being Constance, Alice and Lucy - and the girls had two brothers - Henry Maurice Drummond Hay, James Adam Gordon Richardson Drummond Hay.  

When Peter Drummond-Hay and his family moved into his great aunt’s house in the Perthshire village of Glencarse back in the 1980s, he uncovered a treasure trove of wartime memories.

Edith was affectionately known in the family as ‘Aunt Tuck’. She left a fascinating legacy - a collection of illustrated diaries, including an album of her experiences as a volunteer with the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during the First World War, when she joined the Perth/38 Detachment.  According to her Red Cross Record Card, Edith served in several hospitals, including some in France, and she was awarded the Royal Red Cross, Second Class in June 1919 for her war work.   Edith never married and died on 20th February 1960.   The Grant of Probate for Edith mentions the name David Charles Scott-Moncrieff, which makes me wonder if there is a link to the WW1 poet Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff (1889 – 1930).

The family donated Edith’s WW1 album to the Red Cross in London, where it is at the Red Cross Museum.  The British Red Cross’s 2020 Calendar features some of Edith’s WW1 paintings.

"Embarking at Folkestone" by Edith Maud Drummond Hay

Sources:  British Red Cross 2020 Calendar, Find my Past

https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?sname=Hay&id=64335

https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?sname=Hay&page=2&id=100475

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/perthshire-family-discover-aunt-tucks-8335249

https://www.geni.com/people/Colonel-HM-Drummond-Hay/6000000015351769856

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Drummond-Hay

Photograph of Edith from https://museumandarchives.redcross.org.uk/objects/8828

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (1898 –1986) was a British artist and sculptor

I appreciate that Henry Moore is not less well  known but what is perhaps not known is that he served during the First World War

Born on 30 July 1898 in Castleford, West Riding of Yorkshire, UK, Henry’s parents were Raymond Spencer Moore and his wife, Mary, née Baker.). His father was Irish and became pit deputy and then under-manager of the Wheldale colliery in Castleford.  Educated locally and encouraged by his parents to study, Henry began modelling in clay and carving in wood at an early age. He decided to become a sculptor when he was eleven years old, after hearing about Michelangelo's work in Sunday School.

Henry volunteered to serve in the Army during the First World War but was initially turned down by the Artists' Rifles regiment (the obvious choice) because he was considered too short. However, but eventually he was accepted by the Civil Service Rifles – he was the youngest man to serve in that Regiment - and assigned to the 3rd Battalion. Posted to the Western Front, Henry and was wounded during a gas attack that took place on 30th November 1917 in Bourlon Wood, during the Battle of Cambrai.  He was sent back to Britain and spent two months in hospital, before becoming recovered after hospital treatment and became a physical training instructor.  

“It was in those two years of war that I broke finally away from parental domination which had been very strong. My old friend, Miss Gostick, found out about ex-servicemen's grants. With her help I applied and received one for the Leeds School of Art. This was understood from the outset merely to be a first step. London was the goal. But the only way to get to London was to take the Board of Education examinations and to win a scholarship.”

Henry Moore in James Johnson Sweeney, 'Henry Moore', Partisan Review, New York, March-April 1947, p. 182

After an illustrious career, Henry died on 1st August 1986

Find out more here: 

https://www.henry-moore.org/about-henry-moore/biography/childhood-and-education

Albert Reich (1889-1942) - a German official war artist from Bavaria

 

One of the members of my Artists of the First World War Facebook Group is Ognyan Hristov from Bulgaria., who posted this about Albert Reich:  Albert Reich was a star artist during the First World War.  He served with German alpine troops, travelling to Norway, Russia, Italy, Bosnia. Serbia.  His work from the Macedonian Front is most interesting.

Born in Neumarkt 1889 Albert became an illustrator for the German children’s  magazine: “Kriegsblatter fur die deutsche Jugend“ (Tr. War magazine for German Youth), a magazine that published patriotic stories for children. 

Albert served during the First World War in the German Alpine Corps and travelled to Norway, Italy, Russia and the Balkans. Travelling from Bosnia, through Serbia to Macedonia, he documented what he saw in graphics and watercolors.  Albert wrote and published a book about his experiences: “Mit Meinem Corps durch Serbien", 1916” from which these images are taken. Albert died in Munich in 1942.

Sources:  information from Ognyan Hristov and

https://www.thirdreicharts.com/ss-trommler-albert-reich-1881-1942

Stephen Cribari – a poet who teaches law in America - observations on Lesser-known Artists of the First World War

Stephen J Cribari’s poetry and plays have found their way into print and onto the theatrical and operatic stage in the United States and abroad.  In a parallel life he was a criminal defense attorney and law professor.  His coursework and commentary has ranged from evidence and criminal procedure to cultural property and the protection of art, artifacts, and cultural heritage.  He resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  His verse-novella "Still Life" is published by Lothrop Street Press.

As with little-known poets from WWI, what's our defining standard?  Little- known because died too young?  Little-known as an artist but happened to paint during, or in, the war? Well-known as an artist but painted only a little of the war?

Maybe it's the lawyer in me, or the sometime academic, but I think articulating a standard is important, not because it serves to include or exclude, but because it would spur us on to think about art, and to think about how we think about art.  And I think that's important because it gets us to think about ourselves.

Otto Dix (1891 - 1969)
Self Portrait

WWI art comprised a significant portion of one of my law courses.  Researching and preparing that material, I'd say that Dix, Beckman, Kirchner and Marc were major artists and seriously well-known war artists.  Check out some recent exhibitions at the Neue Gallery in New York City, devoted to Century German and Austrian art: https://www.neuegalerie.org/exhibitions/40

Similarly, Stanley Spencer, Isaac Rosenberg, Orpen, Nevinson, Nash might be considered well-known artists who painted the war, or well-known war artists.  Along with David Bombrerg, Nevinson and Nash might also be considered well-known artists generally.  Alfred Munnings is a seriously well-known artist, to whom the National Army Museum devoted an entire show just a few years ago.

Picasso and Rouault painted a bit of the war, and Renoir painted during the war but not of the war.  They would be considered well-known artists but at best lesser-known war artists.  Just as Yeats, despite his death of an airman poems, is not considered a WWI poet at all as he overtly refused to write poems about the war.

A postcard sent by Picasso to the
French poet Apollinaire in WW1

In the catalogues from the National Portrait Gallery's "The Great War in Portraits" and the Tate's "Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One" are many obscure, little-known artists but they might be considered well-known WWI artists.  And then there's someone like Victor Tardieu who painted the Duchess of Sutherland's field hospital and who, after the war, became a guiding light in Vietnamese painting.  A little-known war artist (no one would have known of his paintings until the Duchess's heirs sold them) who became a famous artist in southeast Asia but remained little known elsewhere!

Stephen Cribari