Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) – French artist

Found by Paul Simadas and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 22nd October 2026   

Self portrait

Claude Monet was born on 14th November 1840.

 Although he did not serve during the First World War, Claude Monet had experience of army life, having served in the French Army spending time in Algeria with the 1st Regiment of Chasseurs d'Afrique in 1861–1862,  

He was 73 years old when WW1 broke out and remained at his home and studio in Giverny throughout the war, refusing to evacuate even when German forces drew close.Instead of active service. He focused on painting his Water Lilies and Weeping Willows series as a tribute to France, supplied vegetables from his garden to local wounded soldiers, and later donated his monumental Les Grandes Décorations panels to the French state.

Claude Monet was deeply troubled by the Great War as he continued to paint during the conflict. He eventually decided to create a grand series of new water lily paintings, which he presented to France to memorialise the end of World War One in 1918, intending them to be a symbol of peace and beauty in contrast to the brutality of the conflict. Most, if not all of those paintings, were painted in the garden of his house in Giverny beginning as early as 1906 and continuing on until his death after the Great War.Some of those paintings were permanently housed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris and are now displayed in two oval-shaped rooms designed specially for them in order to create an   experience of peace and contemplation.

Water Lillies 

Douglas W. Culham (1886 - 1988) – Canadian WW1 artist

 With thanks to Paul Henderson for finding this artist for us  

Douglas William Culham was born on 10th January 1888 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His parents were Joseph Alexander Culham and his wife Helen, nee Wilcocks Copp. 

During the First World War Douglas served in the land forces of the Canadian Expeditionary Force as part of the 3rd Canadian Divisional Ammunition Column.

His unit was tasked with the highly dangerous job of using horses to transport ammunition nightly to the 18-pounder artillery batteries during the horrific  Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium between October and November 1917. The firsthand chaos, smoke, mud, and destruction he witnessed during the offensive heavily influenced his work.

According to my research, Douglas died in 1988.  If anyone has any definite information please get in touch.

"Mud Road to Passchendaele" 1917

Sources: Artists of the First World War Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Wikipedia and Find my Past

Cecil George Charles King (1881-1942) – British artist

 Found by Ognyan Hristov and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 20th March 2026 

Cecil George Charles King was born on 6th August 1881 in Gunnersbury, Hounslow, London, UK.  His parents were Geroge F. King, a Merchant and Barge Owner and his wife Alice. 

Cecil initially studied engineering but, in a change of profession, he chose to study art instead in London at the Goldsmiths School of Art and the Westminster School of Art. He also studied in Paris, where he worked with Jean-Paul Laurens and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen.

Beginning in August 1917, Cecil worked under Norman Wilkinson at Burlington House (Royal College of Art) as his "right-hand man" in the newly established wartime Dazzle Camouflage Team (1917–1918), designed to camouflage British merchant ships.

Cecil's obituary in “The Times” newspaper of 10th December 1942 states that Ceco; served in the trenches during the First World War. Records also indicate that he was a Captain in the 25th (County of London) Cyclist Battalion of the London Regiment and later with the Army Cyclist Corps.

Sources: Wikipedia, Find my Past, https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Charles Pears, RI ROI, RSMA (1873 – 1958) - British artist

 Found by Ognyan Hristov and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 3rd April 2026

Charles Pears was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, UK on 9th September 1873. His parents were George W. Pears, a hosier and outfitter and his wife, Sarah M. Pears, who were both from Pontefract.

Charles studied nearby at East Hardwick and Pomfret College, where he started a lifelong appreciation of Canaletto. Beginning in 1890, Charles worked as an illustrator throughout his career. His early illustrated works were included in msagazines – “The Yellow Book”, “Punch” and “The Graphic” and in the volume entitled “Salt-Water Poems and Ballads” by John Masefield.

Commissioned as an officer into the Royal Marines during the First World War, Charles also worked as an official War Artist during both the First and Second World Wars. 

From 1913 to 1936, Pears was a prolific poster artist, working for London Underground.   He also created posters for the Empire Marketing Board, the Metropolitan Railway, Southern Railway, London, Midland & Scottish Railway, London & North Eastern Railway and Great Western Railway and later  created works for British Railways.

Charles moved to Saint Mawes, Cornwall in semi-retirement, and died in Truro on 28th January 1958. He is commemorated in an annual prize awarded by the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the Charles Pears Memorial Award

Sources:  Wikipedia, Find my Past and https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Illustration:  Transporting the troops, 1917, lithographPlate 64 from the Transport by Sea set, in “The Great War: - Britain's Efforts and Ideals” series, commissioned by the British Department of Information; published by the Fine Arts Society, London, 1917:

Carl Saltzmann (1847-1923) – German artist

 Found by Ognyan Hristov and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook Page 

Carl Saltzmann was born on 23rd September in Berlin, Germany.  He studied art with Hermann Eschke, a German artist specialising in marine art. Carl went on to study in Düsseldorf and, after travelling through the Netherlands and Italy, settled in Berlin. Between 1878 and 1880 he accompanied Prince Henry of Prussia on his trip around the world and later joined the German Emperor on his visit to St. Petersburg and Norway.

Carl became one of Kaiser Wilhelm II's favorite marine artists, frequently accompanying him on sea journeys.

Some of his paintings resulting from these journeys are "Corvette Prince Adalbert in the Strait of Magellan" (1883, Breslau Museum), "In the Pacific Ocean" (1888, German Emperor), and "Arrival of the Hohenzollern at Kronstadt" (Emperor of Russia). The National Gallery in Berlin contains two paintings by Carl. In 1888 he was awarded the Great Gold Medal in Berlin and in 1896 he was appointed Professor at the Academy.

Carl Saltzmann's painting "Walfang mit der Duncan Grey" (Whaling with the Duncan Grey”) depicted the 15th July 1892 "pleasure whaling trip" taken by German Emperor Wilhelm II on the whaling and sealing vessel “Duncan Grey”.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Carl’s motifs became increasingly focused on military subjects. His painting “German Fleet Manoeuvres on the High Seas” was identified as a "trophy painting" seized by British troops, indicating its importance in representing the German Navy's image during this period. His work served to glorify the Kaiser's navy, and his role as a court-adjacent artist meant he was a key figure in generating maritime art for the German Empire, particularly around the time of the war.

Carl died on 14th January 1923 in Potsdam, Germany.

Sources:  Artists of the First World War Facebook page and Wikipedia 

German Fleet Manoeuvres on the High Seas,

George Edmund Butler (1876-1932) – British born New Zealand artist

Found by Paul Simadas and posted on Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 14.12.2021 

Born on 15th January 1872 in Southampton, England, George Edmund Butler emigrated to New Zealand with his parents - Joseph Cawte Butler and his wife Jane, nee Tiller - in 1883, settling in Wellington. 

After completing his education at Te Aro School, Geroge worked for his father, who was a builder, and studied art part-time under James Nairn at the Wellington School of Design. George Edmund Butler became New Zealand’s second official war artist in August 1918 – three months before the end of the war. 

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force War Museum Committee approached him to be an official New Zealand war artist because of his reputation as an artist and his New Zealand connections. Appointed with the honorary rank of Captain in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in September 1918, he joined the New Zealand Division in France later that same month. 

He observed a number of military operations, some while under fire, during his time with the Division, making drawings in a sketchbook. These sketches later became the basis for his paintings. After the Armistice, George returned to France and Belgium to sketch the various New Zealand battlefield sites. 

Although he is now virtually unknown, at the time of his recruitment George Edmund Butler was recognised as a critically acclaimed artist in New Zealand and England. In 1904 alone, Butler won first prize in the art section of the Hawera Industrial Exhibition; had his first painting exhibited at the British Royal Academy’s prestigious annual exhibition in London; and was included in the New Zealand section of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (or World’s Fair), held in St Louis, Missouri. Butler also represented Wellington artists at the New Zealand International Exhibition of Arts and Industries held in Christchurch (1906-7). 

He was distinguished by a Mention Honourable at the Paris Salon of the Société des artistes français in 1911, and was elected to Bristol’s Royal West of England Academy in 1912. The NZEF War Records Section was keen to have such a successful New Zealand artist in the War Artists’ Section. Butler took up his official position with pride. He devoted himself to making work that would appeal to a New Zealand audience and be appropriate for the commemorative function of a War Memorial Museum. He wanted his official paintings to show issues, events and places that would resonate with New Zealanders and this comes across in his careful choice of subject matter.

Portrait of Major General Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell KCB, KCMG painted by George Edmund Butler - oil on canvas.

David Brown Milne (1882 – 1953) – Canadian artist who served as a Canadian war artist in Britain, Belgium and northern France during WWI

David Brown Milne was born near Paisley in Scotland on 8th January 1882. He was the last of ten children born to Scottish immigrant parents who went to live in Canada. His early education was in Paisley, followed by high school in Walkerton; Ontario, Canada. He performed well in school and soon after graduation began teaching in a country school near Paisley, Ontario*. During 1902 and 1903 he studied art through correspondence, eventually deciding to move to New York City in 1903 at the age of 21.

In New York, he spent two years (and a third year of night school) studying at the Art Students League. He came to know both American and European Impressionism, Post Impressionism, and Fauvism, modern approaches that helped shape his own style. A significant measure of this early success was his participation in two of North America’s most important exhibitions of art of the early 20th century: the famous Armory Show in 1913 (seen in New York, Boston, and Chicago) where he had five paintings exhibited and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915.[5] He was represented by the N. E. Montross Gallery (the same gallery showed 'The Eight' or Ashcan School artists).

In 1912, he married Frances May (known as Patsy) and later they moved to Boston Corners, a small hamlet where he painted with oils and watercolours. 

David  left Boston Corners in 1917 for basic training in Toronto for the First World War. He was stationed in Quebec and then quarantined in England for a month, during which time the war ended. Because of his background as an artist, he was asked to complete paintings and drawings as a war artist and produced artworks of battlefields in France and Belgium as well as of soldiers in Kinmel Park Camp in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, North Wales, near Abergele and Rhyl. The camp was built in 1915 to train troops during the First World War and was later used to house troops at the end of the conflict. A riot broke out in the camp among Canadian forces in 1919, concerning repatriation, leading to the deaths of several soldiers.

On 14th November 1952, David Brown Milne had a stroke. Over the next year he continued to suffer from small strokes and died in the hospital in Bancroft, Ontario, on 26th December 1953.

"The Cloth Hall, Ypres"

Posted by the Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919 on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 16th January 2026.

Sources:

Artists of the First World War Facebook Page, Wikipedia and Find my Past

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) – Scottish artist, architect and designer

Charles was born in Glasgow on 7th June 1868. He became an architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret (nee Macdonald) who was also an artist, was influential on European design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism and praised by great modernists such as Josef Hoffmann. 

He moved to the Suffolk village of Walberswick in 1914. There Mackintosh was accused of being a German spy and briefly arrested in 1915.  Interestingly, the stained glass artist Margaret Rope was also arrested in Suffolk on suspicion of being a German spy https://fascinatingfactsofww1.blogspot.com/2026/01/margaret-agnes-rope-1882-1953-british.html

Charles Rennie Mackintosh did not serve in any official capacity during WW1; and having faced suspicion as a potential spy due to his foreign connections, leading to harassment and relocation, his career was essentially over and he focused on painting flowers in the South of France and England.

Painting found by Paul Simadas and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 14th January 2026:   Paul says:

“Winter Rose”, period print of a pencil and water-colour painting by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1916. Signed and dated by the artist.

This unusual watercolour from Charles Rennie Mackintosh was produced in Chelsea, London during the First World War. A rose, the source of so much inspiration for the artist, is observed here amidst foliage in its faded winter beauty. 

“Winter Rose” was painted in 1916 and this mid-war period proved to be financially difficult for the Scottish designer, craftsman and artist and his wife Margaret. With wartime building restrictions limiting demand Mackintosh’s only major architectural commission that year was for the remodelling of the existing multi-story residence at No. 78 Derngate, in Northampton in the English Midlands. The couple turned to producing textile designs which they sold to progressive manufacturers to raise funds. 

Mackintosh also painted several floral themed works for sale of which “Winter Rose” was but one ( Begonias, Peonies, Pinks, Yellow Tulips and Petunias were others). Unusually for Mackintosh, famous for stylised stencilled roses, this example is rendered as a still life. Surrounded by hips and leaves in muted winter colour the detailed rendering of the flower and overall compositon make a very appealing subject for the eye.”

Credit: The Victoria & Albert Museum.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh died in London on 10th December 1928.

Sources:  

Wikipedia and Find my Past and https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Edward Patrey (1856–1940).- British artist

Found by Paul Simadas and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook Page on 5th January 2026

Paul says:

Edward Patry was born in Marylebone, London, UK on 11th December 1856. His parents were Robert S Patry, a colonial broker and his wife, Isabella.  

Edward studied art under Maurice Greiffenhagen at Glasgow School of Art, in London at the Royal College of Art from 1879-1882 and later in Germany.

Edward Patrey was well regarded in his lifetime for his portraiture of British servicemen and this may have been originally commissioned as a private or Family commission by the original owner:

The portrait shown here is:

 ‘Flight Lieutenant Lane, Royal Naval Air Serive’, 1922, by Edward Patrey (1856–1940). Oil on canvas. 92 cm x x 72 cm. Royal Air Force Museum art collection.

This sizeable 1922 portrait of a young wartime pilot of the Royal Naval Air Service shows him wearing the ribbons if the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The artist has only identified this young officer by his surname, Lane.

The Officer’s rank embellishments are Royal Naval Air Service Flight Lieutenant's cuff rank lace, being two medium (half-inch) gold lace bands, one (the upper) with a loop, the ‘executive curl’, in the centre and a gilt eagle in flight worn above the upper lace band all worn on both sleeves. 

From June 1917, all flying officers were ordered to wear eagles on both cuffs to clearly signify their service in the RNAS. 

Sources:  Find my Past and Artists of the First World War Facebook Page

Alexander Kircher (1867 – 1939) – German artist

Alexander Kircher was born in Trieste, Italy on 26th February 1867. At that time Trieste belonged time to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Habsburg monarchy). As a young man he intended to choose the profession of a naval officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. However, due to a foot injury his application was rejected. In 1888 he went to study art at the Berlin Academy, where he concentrated mainly on marine painting from the start. His teachers were Hans Gude and Hermann Eschke.

Alexander made numerous study trips throughout Europa, Asia, North America and Egypt. During those travels, he made several important paintings, drawings and illustrations. In 1893 he worked on the picturesque decoration of buildings at the World Exhibition in Chicago as well as panoramas and dioramas of the marine painter de:Hans von Petersen. In addition, he worked as an illustrator for popular German and foreign magazines and publishers:

Although Alexander did not serve in a formal military capacity during The First World War due to the foot injury that led to his rejection from naval officer training as a young man, he was, however, associated with the German and Austro-Hungarian navies through his work as a maritime artist and illustrator.   

He also worked as an illustrator for German and Austrian newspapers and magazines. The Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung or the modern illustrated weekly Reclams universe (Leipzig), the writings of the Austrian (Vienna) and the German fleet association (Berlin) and the Viennese publisher Philipp & Kramer, for which he designed the postcard series "Dalmatia and Istria". These included Feldpost, postcards which Kircher created for the Austrian Red Cross, the War Welfare Office or the War Aid Office and also for the London Postcard Publisher Raphael Tuck & Sons and the Swedish Postcards Publisher: "Gothenburg Lithographic AB and Meyer & Köster". For some time Kircher owned a steam yacht, which he named Romana – which was his wife's name. 

Alexander died on 16th September 1939 in Berlin.

With thanks to Ognyan Hristov for finding this artist for us

Arthur Nantel (1874 - 1948) – Canadian soldier artist and POW in WW1

 With thanks to Paul Hendereson for finding this artist for us

Portrait of Nantel in
PoW camp
1916

Arthur Nantel was born on 22nd November 1874 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Arthur began his career as a commercial artist in his home town of Montreal, and although he had no formal training he spent a lifetime earning a living in the arts. This talent helped him make it through the dark years of World War

When war broke out in August 1914, at the age of 41, Arthur enlisted with the 14th Royal Montreal Battalion. He first saw action at Ypres, Belgium, in April 1915, during the Battle of St. Julien. He was captured there and spent the remainder of the war as a Prisoner of War  at Giessen, a German prisoner of war camp.

For the first few years, Arthur’s captors saw him as a valuable commodity, exploiting him at every opportunity. He and a few other talented PoWs were given a small hut that they nicknamed Giessen Studio. “I sat at my easel, trying to earn the value of a piece of wurst (sausage) to assuage my voracious appetite…. Distinguished officers vied with each other in their efforts to have the monopoly of selling my works at a profit of 7,000 per cent.”

In 1917 he helped design a monument for the men who died in captivity at Giessen Camp, but that same year there was a change in command at the camp and Giessen Studio was shut down. Arthur ground out the remainder of the war in hard labour. His last seven months of internment were spent slaving in a mine.

The art from his days at the studio reflects his French Canadian roots. In spite of the misery of his position many of his works are filled with colour and joie de vivre. Those lively paintings have a folk art quality to them. The artist described his painting of Christmas Eve, 1916. “The evening jollification, which began with fairly orthodox dancing, gradually became a wild farandole (a communal dance) in and around the chimneys of the hut.”

Christmas Eve, 1916.

The years in a German PoW camp sharpened his artistic skills and after the war Nantel moved to New York where he worked as an illustrator for United Artists Studios, the motion picture company. In the 1930s he worked as a freelance illustrator. Nantel died on 6th November 1948 but he left behind a rare glimpse into the life of a WW I PoW.

Today, 31 of his works reside at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Sources: Wikipedia and Find my Past

Charles Spencelayh (1865 – 1958) – British artist

Self  portrait

Charles Spencelayh was born in Rochester in Kent, UK on 27th October 1865.  He first studied at the National Art Training School, South Kensington. 

Charles showed his work at the Paris Salon but most of his exhibitions were in Britain. Between 1892 and 1958, he exhibited over 30 paintings at the Royal Academy, including "Why War" (1939), which won the Royal Academy ‘Picture of the Year’. He was also a founder member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, where he exhibited 129 miniatures between 1896 and 1954.

His son Vernon served in the Kings Liverpool and was later commissioned into the Worcersters.

Many of his subjects were of domestic scenes, painted with an almost photographic detail, such as "The Laughing Parson" (1935) and "His Daily Ration" (1946). He also painted still life subjects including "Apples" (1951).

Chaarles Spencelayh was a favourite of Queen Mary, who was an avid collector of his work. In 1924 he painted a miniature of King George V for the Queen's dolls’ house.

Charles died on 25th June 1958.

On 17th December 2009, Charles Spencelayh's masterpiece "The Old Dealer" was sold at auction at Sotheby's for over £345,000.

“A Minute’s Silence” painted in 1928 by Charles Spencelayh.

Source: Wikipedia 

NOTE; Silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day to remember those who died in conflict. Held each year at 11:00 am on 11th November.

Georgia O’Keefe ( 1887 – 1986) – American artist

Found by Dr Connie Ruzich

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was born on 15th November 1887. She was the second of seven children. She attended Town Hall School in Sun Prairie.  By the age of ten, she had decided to become an artist.  With her sisters, Ida and Anita, Georgia received art instruction from local watercolorist Sara Mann and went on to attended high school at The Sacred Heart Academy in Madison, Wisconsin, as a boarder between 1901 and 1902. In late 1902, the O'Keeffes moved from Wisconsin to the close-knit neighborhood of Peacock Hill in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Georgia's father started a business making rusticated cast concrete block in anticipation of a demand for the block in the Virginia Peninsula building trade, but the demand never materialized.  

Georgia stayed in Wisconsin attending Madison Central High School until joining her family in Virginia in 1903. She completed high school as a boarder at Chatham Episcopal Institute in Virginia (now Chatham Hall), graduating in 1905. At Chatham, she was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority.  She then went on to study art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working part time as a commercial illustrator or a teacher to pay for further education.

Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer and photographer, held an exhibit of Georgia’s work in 1916.

Georgia taught and headed the art department at West Texas State Normal College, watching over her youngest sibling, Claudia, at her mother's request. In 1917, she visited her brother, Alexis, at a military camp in Texas before he shipped out for Europe during the First World War.  While there, she created the painting “The Flag” which expressed her anxiety and depression about the war.

She moved to New York in 1918 at Alfred Stieglitz's request and began working seriously as an artist. They developed a professional and personal relationship that led to their marriage on 11th December 1924.

After a long and illustrious career, Georgia died on 6th March 1986.

William Lionel Wyllie (1851 - 1931) – British Artist also known as W L Wyllie

 

An engraved portrait of W. L. Wyllie from The Illustrated London News of 4th May 1889

William was born on 5th July 1951 in London.  He was the elder son of William Morrison Wyllie (1820 – 1895), a prosperous minor-genre artist who lived in London and in Wimereux, France, by his wife Katherine Benham (1813 – 1872), a singer. Before marrying W. M. Wyllie, she had had three children by Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford. One of them, Wyllie's half-brother Lionel Percy Smythe (1839 – 1918), also made a name for himself as an artist.  And William’s younger brother, Charles Wyllie (1853 – 1923) was apparently also an artist.

William spent most of his early summers in France with his parents and developed a love of sailing. He began to draw from an early age and his natural talent was encouraged by his father and by Lionel Smythe, his step brother. He was given a thorough artistic education; first at the Heatherley School of Fine Art, and then in 1866, aged 15, at the Royal Academy Schools. At the Royal Academy he studied under Edwin Henry Landseer, John Everett Millais and Frederic Leighton, among others.  He further demonstrated his precocious talent when he won the Turner Gold Medal in 1869 at the age of eighteen.

Already a celebrated marine artist, at the outbreak of war in 1914, Wyllie became an accredited war artist and was commissioned by the Admiralty to visually record naval vessels and actions. He was given permission to travel on many Royal Navy ships and visited naval bases such as Harwich, Rosyth, Cromarty, and Scapa Flow, where he produced hundreds of studies and sketches. His wartime experiences were extensive: he not only cruised in His Majesty's ships but also flew in the air, submerged in a submarine, and took a trip in a Q-ship (a disguised armed merchant ship).

Two of William's sons by his wife Marion Amy Carew, who he married in 1879, were killed in the First World War. 

William died on 6th April 1931.

"Battle of the Falklands" (1918)

Source:  Wilipedia 

Hans Bohrdt (1857 – 1945) – German artist

Hans was born on 11th February 1857. His parents were Adolph Eduard Bohrdt and his wife, Rosalie Pauline Szymkowski. He was one of 7 siblings (Paul Reinhold, Albert Anton, Maria Ann, Clare Antonie, Johanna Antonie and Carl Eduard). His father was a civil servant in the legal department of the Imperial administration.

Hans’s love for the sea began when he was 15 after visiting the port of Hamburg.  

Hans was a self-taught artist and he gave private lessons to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

During the First World War, Hans worked as a prominent marine artist and illustrator for propaganda purposes, producing numerous illustrations, postcards and posters throughout the war. His work, which often depicted German naval power and valor, was a key part of the German propaganda machine.

Hans died on 19th December 1945.

Der Letzte Mann (Tr.The Last Man”) - painted by Hans  in 1915 

Source:   Wikipedia

 

Frank Earle Schoonover (1877 – 1972) - American illustrator

Frank Earle Schoonover was born on 19th August 1877 in Oxford, New Jersey, USA. He studied art under Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and became a member of the Brandywine School

During the First World War, Frank contributed to the war effort by creating illustrations for the "Ladies Home Journal" magazine between 1918 and 1919.

Frank died on 1st September 1972 in Wilmington, Delaware, at the age of 95.

 

With thanks to Eddie Bon for finding this information for us.

Painting of the scene of Alvin York's exploits in the Argonne Forest on 8th October 1918 by Frank Earle Schoonover.. The painting, created in 1919, depicts the moment York single-handedly captured 132 German soldiers after single-handedly taking on a German machine gun nest.

John Rutherford Armstrong ARA (1893 – 1973) – British artist who served with the Royal Field artillery in WW1

Poretrait c. 1933

 John Rutherford Armstrong was born on 14th November 1893 in   Hastings, Sussex.  He was the third son of the Rev’d William   Alexander Armstrong and his wife, Emily Mary, née Cripps. 

 Educated at St Paul's School, London (1907–1912), he went on to   read law briefly at St John's College, Oxford, before starting a short   period of studies at the St John's Wood School of Art, London until   the war intervened.

  During his service as an officer in the Royal Field Artillery in   WW1, the period he spent in Salonika fostered a lifelong interest in   the painting and pottery of ancient Greece, a subject that appeared repeatedly in his later work. and his career in painting and design   began after his return and demobilization

Sources:

Photo of Armstrong c. 1933 from https://www.jennaburlingham.com/artists/361-john-armstrong/biography/

Philip Connard, CVO, RA, (1875 - 1958) - British artist who served in the Royal Artillery on the Western Front before becoming an official Royal Naval war artist during the First World War

 With thanks to Ognyan Hristov for finding this artist for us 

Self portrait

 Philip Connard was born in Southport, Lancashire, UK, on 24th March   1875.  He left school to go out to work as a house decorator, enrolling to 1study art at evening classes.  Philip won a scholarship to study at the   Royal College of Art in London.   After a brief period in France, he     returned to London and worked as an illustrator, before taking  up a     teaching post at Lambeth School of Art.

 During the First World War, Philip volunteered and joined the Royal   Field Artillery as a Gunner (Private).  He was posted to France, where he   took part in several actions before being sent home suffering from Shell   Shock.  By then, he had attained the rank of Captain.

 Appointed as an official war artist by the Royal Navy, Philip painted the   surrender of the German ship SMS “Goeben” and “St George's Day:   Bridge of HMS 'Canterbury', on Patrol Work when the Great Naval Raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend Took Place” on 23rd April 1918.

Philip  was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1918 and became a full Academician in 1925. He was Keeper of the Royal Academy school - the principal tutor - from 1945 to 1949 and was a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours. In 1950, Philip was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. 

Philip never forgot his roots, founding The Southport Palette Club in 1921 in order to hold annual exhibitions of the work of local artists. He was President of the Club until his death on 8th December 1958  in Twickenham

Anti-aircraft Gun, 1918

St George's Day 1918 - Bridge of HMS Canterbury

Sources:  Wikipedia and

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Wilhelm Thöny (1888–1949) – Austrian artist

 Found by Paul Simadas and posted on the

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Wilhelm Thöny was born in 1888 in the Austrian province of Styria and died in New York in 1949. He became a painter, graphic artist, engraver and illustrator. Thöny trained at the State Art School in Graz, and then the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich from 1908 to 1912.

In 1915, Thöny volunteered to join the Graz Rifle Regiment #3. In 1916, now as an army artist, he was commissioned to paint portraits of enemy soldiers for the book "The enemies of Germany and its allies” or “Die Feinde Deutschlands und seiner Verbündeten". He visited prisoner of war camps at Braunau in Bohemia, Kleinmünchen and Mauthausen to paint portrait studies of captured Greek, Italian, Albanian and Romanian soldiers.

In the portrait shown here he has painted a Greek soldier in a martial pose showing a certain empathy for his subject:

Wilhelm Thöny is considered one of the most important Austrian artists of the first half of the 20th century, who, according to the latest findings, can be ranked alongside such famous painters as Oskar Kokoschka, Herbert Boeckl or the artists of the Nötscher Kreis like Anton Kolig, Franz Wiegele.

Sources: post by Paul Simadas and Wikipedia

Jean-Louis Forain (1852 – 1931) – French artist

 

Jean-Louis Forain was a French artist, who specialized in painting, print making, and illustration. He was born in Reims in France on 23rd October 1852 and moved to Paris with his family when he was eight years old. 

During the First World War, Forain's illustrations honoured the patriotism of his contemporaries, and he enlisted in the Section de Camouflage under Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola.  He was also a war correspondent. A number of his caricatures published in the popular press at the time became posters and postcards.

Untitled caricature by Jean-Louis Forain

In his later years, Forain created numerous scenes of the Law Courts and other Parisian institutions and social satire caricatures of late 19th and early 20th century French life.

In 1931, shortly before his death on 11th July, Forain was made a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He was one of France's most famous and revered artists during his time. He was, perhaps, most highly respected for his numerous drawings which chronicled and commented on Parisian city life at the end of the 19th century. Followers and admirers of Forain's work included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Sources:  Artists of the First World War Facebook Page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Forain