Australian artists and the First World War

Forty years on from the tragedy of Gallipoli, Sidney Nolan reflected on the campaign and what it meant for the history of Australia and his own experience of the Second World War.

Evelyn Chapman was the first Australian woman to record the battlefields of France. She toured the Somme region, painting vivid paintings of still-smouldering ruins and trenches.

During his wartime service as a medical orderly, Australia’s first abstract artist Roy de Maistre began to experiment with colour and form as means of providing therapy to psychologically wounded soldiers.

Ellis Silas landed at Gallipoli on the first day of the campaign. During his service, he kept a diary and make sketches that traced his struggles with adapting to life at war.

Grace Cossington Smith was one of a handful of Australian artists who portrayed life on the home front in Sydney. Her works were radical departures from a tradition of conservative Australian painting.

Arthur Streeton toured the shell-scarred landscapes of France in 1918, recording the fields over which Australian soldiers had fought and died. His paintings hint at the loss suffered by a generation of young Australians.

Deeply moved by the tragedy of Gallipoli, from her studio in Rome Dora Ohlfsen sculpted a commemorative medal to aid Australian war wounded. Later commissioned by the Fascist Italian government to create memorials for the Italian Army and Mussolini, her story raises questions about the politics of war commemoration.

Will Dyson was the first artist commissioned under the auspices of the Official Australian War Art Scheme. A famous political satirist, Dyson brought a keen and critical eye to recording the Western Front.

The young English artist and rifleman Weaver Hawkins barely survived the Battle of the Somme. The experienced changed him and his art forever and after moving to Australia in 1935 he used his artistic practice to criticise militarism.

George Lambert, official artist of the Gallipoli campaign, was responsible for creating some of the most arresting and memorable art works from Australia’s war.