NZHistory, New Zealand history online - war art

Wounded at Cassino by Peter McIntyre

This painting by Peter McIntyre, New Zealand's official war artist in the Mediterranean during the Second World War, depicts a scene during the Battle of Cassino, part of the Italian Campaign. McIntyre was attached to the 2nd New Zealand Division during the war, and his work helped define the New Zealand soldier's experience in Crete, North Africa and Italy.

The muted colours in McIntyre's painting convey a sombre tone. This perhaps also conveys the disappointment felt amongst members of the Division that the offensive's objectives were not met. The most detailed section of the painting, and the viewer's natural point of attention, are the two New Zealand soldiers. One is helping his wounded comrade navigate the network of rubble that characterised the town of Cassino following its destruction by aerial and artillery bombardment in March 1944.

Discover more works from the official war art collection on Archives New Zealand's War Art Online site.

Credit:

National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand
Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA 309
Artist: Peter McIntyre
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Bombing of Cassino painting

Bombing of Cassino Monastery and town by Peter McIntyre, New Zealand's official war artist in the Mediterranean during the Second World War, depicts a scene during the Battle of Cassino, part of the Italian Campaign. McIntyre was attached to the 2nd New Zealand Division during the war, and his work helped define the New Zealand soldier's experience in Crete, North Africa and Italy.

From mid January 1944, the New Zealand Corps readied itself for an attack on Cassino – a strong point on the Germans' defensive Gustav Line, and a major obstacle on the route to Rome. Worried that the Benedictine monastery on the hill above Cassino would be used as a lookout by the Germans, the Corps' commander Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg ordered its destruction. On the morning of 15 February 1944, 255 aircraft dropped a total of 576 tons of high explosive on or near the monastery.

Painted in May 1944, months after the event, the perspective of McIntyre's painting gives a sense of the magnitude of the bombings. The monastery is positioned on the top of the hill, obscured by black smoke. In the centre of the painting is Castle Hill. Below them are the ruins of the town of Cassino, shattered by weeks of artillery bombardment. One month later, on 15 March, the town itself was destroyed by another major aerial bombardment.

Discover more works from the official war art collection on Archives New Zealand's War Art Online site.

Credit:

National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand
Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA 13
Artist: Peter McIntyre
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Sinking of the Bouvet

The French battleship Bouvet was one of three Allied battleships sunk by mines during the disastrous naval attack of 18 March 1915. The Bouvet capsized and sank within two minutes of striking the underwater device; 639 of the crew of 710 were killed.

Credit:

Diyarbakırlı Tahsin Bey (Tahsin Siret, 1874-1937)

Wikimedia Commons

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Maheno sailing from Wellington painting

Walter Armiger Bowring’s atmospheric depiction of the hospital ship Maheno sailing from Wellington en route to Gallipoli in 1915.

Credit:

National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand
Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA Q387
Artist: Walter Armiger Bowring
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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The Battle of Chunuk Bair, 8 August 1915, by Ion Brown

The Battle of Chunuk Bair, 8 August 1915, by Ion G. Brown, 1990.

Ion Brown was Official Artist the the New Zealand Defence Force from 1987 to 1997. This painting was commissioned to mark New Zealand's Sesquicentennial and the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: D-001-035
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of their images.

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The attack of the Otago Mounted Rifles at Messines, 2010

The attack of the Otago Mounted Rifles at Messines, 7 June 1917, painted by Captain Matt Gauldie, official New Zealand Army Artist, in 2010.

Gauldie’s dramatic painting shows a charge by a squadron of the Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment during the Battle of Messines in June 1917. These horsemen advanced nearly a kilometre ahead of the infantry on Messines Ridge, capturing several German prisoners and two field guns. Casualties for troopers and horses were similar: seven or eight killed and more than 30 wounded.

This painting is currently on display at the Toitū Otago Settlers Musuem in Dunedin.

Credit:

Don Mackay

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Painting of James Crichton VC

Private James Crichton VC, painted by Francis McCracken in 1920-21. James Crichton was awarded a Victoria Cross (VC) for 'conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty' during the crossing of the Scheldt River near Crèvecoeur on 30 September 1918.

Read more about James Crichton (Auckland Museum Cenotaph)

About the artist

Born in Northern Ireland, Francis McCracken (1879–1959) grew up on a cattle station in Australia before moving to New Zealand. After studying at Elam School of Art in Auckland, he served with the NZEF during the First World War, losing a leg at Ypres. Invalided out of the military, McCracken renewed his art studies in Edinburgh. He returned to New Zealand briefly in 1920 as part of an exhibition tour with war artists Robert Johnson and John Weeks. James Crichton was one of two New Zealand VC winners whom he was commissioned to paint following the First World War. The other was Reginald Judson.

Credit:

National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand
Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA 528
Artist: Francis McCracken
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Damaged war art

Civilian with donkey cart by Ernest Herber Thompson, 1916.

A bit of the Cloth Hall, Ypres by Cecil Trevithick, 1918 (click on thumbnail for larger image).

Examples of badly damaged paper sketches in New Zealand's National Collection of War Art.

At the end of the First World War, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force's official war art collection was sent back to New Zealand. Plans to exhibit the works in a National War Memorial Museum in Wellington came to nothing when this building project was cancelled. Instead, the collection was shifted to the Dominion Museum (Te Papa's predecessor), where it was placed into long-term storage. By the 1950s, some of the works were suffering from having been kept in damp conditions for several decades.

Credit:

National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand
Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA Q238
Artist: Ernest Huber Thompson
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Establishing a collection - First World War art

For a few short months between April 1918 and the beginning of 1919, New Zealand had a small but productive group of official war artists engaged in documenting the activities of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in France, Belgium, England and the Middle East. The NZEF had intended to expand this war art programme further but the November 1918 Armistice saw the New Zealand government discontinue funding.

Menin Road from Hooge Crater by George Butler

The New Zealand War Artists’ Section was progressively disestablished in 1919. The plan to showcase New Zealand’s wartime achievements in a major London exhibition also lost momentum when the project’s major advocates – Brigadier General George Richardson, Major General Sir Andrew Russell and Colonel Heaton Rhodes – returned to New Zealand. High Commissioner Sir Thomas Mackenzie was able to organise an exhibition of George Butler’s war paintings in June 1919. But this event fell well short of the original vision, intended to rival the success of similar exhibitions held by Britain, Australia and Canada.

Finding a home for the collection

The NZEF had hoped to house the official war art collection in a National War Memorial Museum in Wellington. Debate over the viability of this Museum continued for several years but ultimately the project never went ahead. The war art collection suffered badly from neglect as a result of this decision. Following the demobilisation of the NZEF in 1919 the official paintings, drawings and sketches were sent back to New Zealand in a haphazard manner. Records of what was sent and, especially, what had actually been made by the artists, were not well kept (or have been lost over the years).

The official war art was placed in the custody of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). As the prospect of a separate National War Memorial Museum dwindled, the Dominion Museum reluctantly became the de-facto home of the collection. Regrettably, this institution showed little appreciation for the historical and artistic significance of the official war art and had no intention of arranging a major exhibition to show the collection to the public. The works were instead kept in marginal storage conditions and left to decay. In late 1921 and into 1922, several newspapers condemned the Museum for its indifferent attitude towards the collection. But the situation did not change.

Sergeant Samuel Forsyth, VC by Richard Wallwork, 1920

In mid-1920, there was a glimmer of hope for the future of the war art collection when the DIA commissioned a series of portraits of New Zealand’s Victoria Cross recipients and other distinguished servicemen such as Generals Chaytor and Freyberg. These portraits were mainly produced by local New Zealand artists. Although the Dominion Museum was charged with arranging these commissions, it did not have the space or resources to accommodate the growth of the collection. Selected works were loaned to the Dominion Industrial Exhibition in Christchurch (1922-3), Dunedin’s South Seas Exhibition (1925), and for the openings of the Auckland War Memorial Museum (1929) and the National Art Gallery (1936). But several works never came out of storage. During the Second World War an inventory report was conducted on the First World War art collection still held at the Museum. This judged the works to be in very poor condition and some remedial restoration and reframing was undertaken.

Impact of the Second World War

By contrast, official war art played a much greater and more dignified role in the Second World War. The Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) was quick to recognise the necessity of a war artist and employed Peter McIntyre in January 1941. McIntyre followed the New Zealanders through Crete, North Africa and Italy. The New Zealand campaign in the Pacific was recorded by official artists Allan Barns-Graham (from March 1943) and Russell Clark (June 1943 in New Zealand, early 1944 in the Islands).

Artists in Uniform exhibition film, 1943

These works were given considerable public exposure. An exhibition of McIntyre’s early war paintings toured New Zealand in 1942 and further exhibitions were held in London in 1943 and 1944. Unofficial war art was also widely exhibited: a Patriotic Fund show, Artists in Uniform, was held in 1943, from which several works were purchased to add to the war art collection.

In 1952 the National Art Gallery hosted a major exhibition of official and unofficial war art from both world wars. In contrast to the bold graphic styles of the Second World War paintings, the dominantly brown- and ochre-toned First World War works would have appeared quite drab. Having been kept in a damp basement for several decades, some of the original colour had faded and the paper discoloured. Their affected ‘Edwardian’ emphasis on intricate detail would have also seemed fussy to a 1950s viewer. All this did not bode well for the immediate future of the artworks.

International war art donated to NZ

French cavalry in the rain by Louis Raemakers, circa 1914-1918.

The Rebirth of Arts by Charles Shannon, 1917 (click on thumbnail for larger image).

There are around 1500 paintings, drawings, cartoons and prints in New Zealand's National Collection of War Art (NCWA). The collection contains a mix of official war art, commissioned by the New Zealand forces or the New Zealand government, and unofficial art that has been collected or donated to the NCWA over the years. While the majority of these works were made by New Zealand artists or expatriates with strong ties to the country, the collection also contains international pieces (see examples above) that were donated to New Zealand following the First World War.

Credit:

National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand
Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA Q228
Artist: Louis Raemakers
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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