Victor François Tardieu (1870 – 1937) - French artist; cofounder of what is now known as the Vietnam University of Fine Arts.

Born in France in Orliénas (département du Rhône, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) on 30th April 1870, Victor enrolled at the École nationale des Beaux-arts de Lyon in 1887. After two years there, he transferred to the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied for a year. In 1890, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-arts de Paris, with the advice and support of Léon Bonnat. He was employed in the workshops of Bonnat and Albert Maignan until 1894. He also collaborated with the stained glass artist, producing a series of glass boxes.

In 1902, Victor married the harpist, Caroline Luigini, daughter of the composer and conductor, Alexandre Luigini. They had one son - Jean Tardieu, who became a writer.

In 1914, Victor volunteered for service in the First World War and worked as a medical orderly in a field hospital near Dunkirk; during which time he continued to sketch and paint. 

In 1915, Victor painted some of the scenes at the Hospital in the Oatfield, organised by British poet and nurse Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland in France in the early days of WW1. 

Victor's paintings of the Hospital in the Oatfield are now owned by the Florence Nightingale Museum in London.

In 1925, Victor and his friend, the painter Nguyễn Nam Sơn, created the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (now the Vietnam University of Fine Arts), where he served as Director until 1936.  Victor died in Hanoi, Vietnam on 12th June 1937.

Sources:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Tardieu

https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-hospital-in-the-oatfield/

https://femalewarpoets.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-book-about-ww1-poet-millicent-duchess.html

https://femalewarpoets.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-book-about-ww1-poet-millicent-duchess.html

Maurice Wagemans (1877-1927) – Belgian artist

With thanks to Historian, Poet, Writer, Translator AC Benus for

finding this artist for us

Maurice Wagemans was born in Brussels, Belgium on 18th May 1877. He studied art at the Academy of Brussels from 1890 to 1895, with Jan Portaels and Joseph Stallaert as professors, before completing his education in Paris, at the same time as Alfred Bastien and Frans Smeers. 

Maurice painted historical scenes, domestic scenes, portraits, nudes, beach scenes, landscapes and seascapes. 

During the First World War, Maurice volunteered and became a member of the Section Artistique at the Front (see below).

His villa “Sunshine” became a point of attraction for other painters, from France, the United States of America and Japan. In later years, when their works were labeled “academic impressionism”, some of these artists began to practice a new direction that would come to be known as Flemish Expressionism.

WW1 postcard by Maurice Wagemans
entitled "Heros"

Maurice was a member of several artists' associations: Artists Association, Cercle Artistique et Littéraire (Brussels), Pour l'Art, Le Sillon and Kunst van Heden. 

Maurice died in Bredene on the Belgian coast in West Flanders on 31st July 1927 and was buried in  the Cemetery Paster Pype on the Nieuwpoortsesteenweg in Ostend, Belgium.

You can see other examples of Maurice's WW1 paintings on this website, from which the biographical information is taken:  https://muizenest.nl/2017/04/19/maurice-wagemans/

Note:  Section Artistique de l’Armée belge en Campagne (Artistic Section of the Belgian Army in the Field)

It was not until 1916, a relatively calm year on the Yser front, that the Section Artistique de l’Armée belge en Campagne (Artistic Section of the Belgian Army in the Field) was created. The origin of this unit is somewhat vague since no official decision is included in the general staff's Daily Orders, but its paternity is generally attributed to Alfred Bastien, with the support of the Royal couple through the intermediary of Jules Ingenbleek, the King's secretary. 

Posted to Nieuwpoort, the Brussels painter was joined, between July 1916 and August 1918, by 25 other artists with differing styles and sensitivities; the youngest were Joseph Vandegem (20 years) and André Lynen (28 years), while the oldest were in their 40s. This was not a simple company of brotherly artists, as had been the wish of Alfred Bastien, but rather an administrative division of the General Headquarters (located in La Panne), directed by an officer and subject to strict regulations. Set down on 23 June 1916, these regulations stipulate that the Section members are free to exercise their art (Article I) but that "no painting, outline, drawing or sketch can be published or sold during the war without the approval of the General Headquarters censor" (Article V), while the government also retains "a right of priority for the possible purchase of their works" (Article IV) ; moreover, though there is "no provision for promotion in rank or salary increase" and while they "must provide for themselves" (Article II), the artists are dispensed from any guard duties and other tedious obligations related to their function as a soldier.

Source:

https://www.rtbf.be/ww1/topics/detail_pencil-charcoal-and-brushes-at-the-front-the-artistic-section-of-the-belgian-army-in-the-field?id=8355944

Lucy Kemp Welch (1869 – 1958) – British artist specialising in the painting of horses

Lucy Elizabeth Kemp Welch was born in Bournemouth, UK on 20th June 1869. Her parents were Edwin B. Kemp Welch, a solicitor, and his wife, Elizabeth Kemp Welch, nee Oakes. Lucy’s younger sister, Edith (1871 – 1941), also studied art and became an artist, as did their cousin, Margaret Kemp-Welch (1874-1968).

Educated at a local art school, Lucy and Edith went to Bushey, Hertfordshire in 1891 to enrol in Hubert von Herkomer’s art school. As one of Herkomer's best students, Lucy set up her own studio in a former inn known as 'Kingsley'. Lucy took over the running of the Herkomer School in 1905 and ran it until 1926, first as the Bushey School of Painting and then, after moving it into her own home, as the Kemp-Welch School of Animal Painting.

In December 1914, Lucy was commissioned by the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee to paint the artwork for an army recruitment poster – “Forward! Forward to Victory Enlist Now”. In 1916, she sought and was given permission to visit the Royal Field Artillery camp at Bulford on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, UK. The officer in command of the camp allowed Lucy to set up an easel while eight batteries of horse artillery were continually ridden towards her so she could sketch the horse teams in movement at close quarters.

As well as Bulford Camp, Lucy also visited several other Royal Artillery camps. The resulting pictures included “Big Guns to the Front”, an image of shire horses pulling guns through a snowy landscape, which was shown to great acclaim at the Royal Academy in 1918 and was purchased for the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff in 1921.

Lucy also painted scenes at First World War Remount Depots. Although perhaps Lucy is best known for the paintings of horses in military service she produced during World War One, she also illustrated the 1915 edition of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty.

The Army Remount Department was the body responsible for the purchase and training of horses and mules for military use between 1887 and 1942. Prior to the First World War the British army possessed around 25,000 horses; by the middle of 1917 this had increased to around 600,000, plus camels and oxen.

Lucy Kemp Welch died in Bushey, Hertfordshire on 27th November 1958.

Lucy Kemp Welch by Irish-born artist
Harry Furniss (1854 - 1925)

Sources:  Find my Past, Free BMD, Wikipedia

Edith Mary Kemp-Welch (1870–1941) was a British artist - portrait painter.

Edith Kemp-Welch was born in 1970 in Christchurh, Hampshire, UK.  Her parents were Edwin B. Kemp Welch, a solicitor, and his wife, Elizabeth Welch, nee Oakes.  Edith grew up in Bournemouth and attended the Bournemouth School of Art. 

In 1892, Edith enrolled at the art school founded by Hubert von Herkomer at Bushey in Hertfordshire. Edith continued living in Bushey and her elder sister, the artist Lucy Kemp-Welch, took over the running of the Herkomer school.  Between 1898 and 1940, Edith Kemp-Welch exhibited a total of 29 paintings at the Royal Academy in London – these were mostly portraits but also included at last one landscape.  The girls’ cousin Margaret Kemp-Welch (1874–1968) was also an artist.

 During the First World War, both Edith and her sister Lucy produced recruiting posters for the British war effort. The poster created by Edith Kemp-Welch featured an image of Britannia with the slogan "Remember Scarborough ! Enlist Now", a reference to the war-time attack on Scarborough.  

The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it.

Harry Epworth Allen, MM (1894 - 1958) – British artist

Harry Epworth Allen was born in Broomhall, Sheffield, UK on 27th November 1894.  His parents were Henry Allen, a steel mark maker, and his wife Elizabeth Epwroth Allen, nee Blacktin.

Educated at King Edward VII School in Sheffield, when  he left school, Harry started work as a clerk in the steel works where his fther worked.  

Harry began to study art at Sheffield Technical School of Art in 1912.  

During the First World War, Harry enlisted on 29th October 1915 as a Gunner with the Royal Garrison Artillery and in June 1916 his Regiment was posted to the Western Front.   Harry was awarded a Military Medal in 1917 for conspicuous gallantry.  He was seriously wounded.

Sources:  Liss Llewellyn Fine Art, Find my Past,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Epworth_Allen