Ypres, 2019-20
Arras, 2019-20
The Aisne, 2019-20
The Somme, 2019-20
Lands of Unknown Warriors
The paintings are inspired by the four battle areas connected to the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. In the summer of 2017 the artist spent time in these sites making studies of the landscapes as they are now. These oil paintings stem from these first studies and use vivid colours which seek to distil the individual character felt in each location. Each painting has been made across four separate canvases, one for each soldier exhumed. Each canvas is oil on canvas, and the same size as a Commonwealth War Grave headstone: 2 ft 6 in. in height and 1 ft. 3 in. in width. Once completed, the canvases were taken to the battle areas in Belgium and France which inspired the paintings.
‘…sacrifice of the individual is a great idea and worthy of commemoration; but the community of sacrifice, the service of a common cause, the comradeship of arms which has brought together men of all ranks and grades - these are greater ideas, which should be commemorated…’
WAR GRAVES, 1918, Report to the Imperial War Graves Commission by Lieut.-Colonel Sir FREDERIC KENYON, K.C.B., Director of the British Museum.
The Ypres canvases were gathered next to Caterpillar Crater at Hill 60.
One can see traces of fighting all around this site. Nowhere is it more apparent than in this enormous crater, the result of an Allied mine detonated in a tunnel underneath the German positions. At the bottom is a pool of water in which birds, insects and greenery now flourish. Despite the traces of the fighting, the whole area is very beautiful and feels oddly calm.
The Arras paintings stem mostly from the landscapes around Vimy Ridge. The remarkable monument on top of the ridge, designed by Walter Seymour Allward, can be seen on the horizon behind the paintings. Most of the studies made in Arras depicted trees, but despite repeated attempts to include them in this painting they had to be removed. The focus of the image, instead, is the ridge itself, drawn from this spot very hurriedly.
Initial work in this location was done when the field had just been ploughed and was devoid of crops - rather different from when the finished paintings returned to the site.
The Aisne paintings focus on a large area around the Chemin des Dames. The road itself is on a high plateau which affords the visitor wonderful views. The principal subject of this work was the Chapelle Sainte Berthe, a short distance away. The building has had a difficult history and the plaque above the door reads: Chapelle Sainte-Berthe of the 12th century burnt in 1814, rebuilt in 1871 destroyed in 1918, rebuilt in 1927.
The Somme battlefields contain a number of prominent sites, many of which influenced this painting. Perhaps the painting’s principal subject, though, is Trones Wood located near the Guillemont Road Cemetery. The final morning of painting on the Somme was extremely wet. The only shelter available came from the canopy of trees, which also framed the views of the landscape, and creates one of the dominant forms in the final painting.
Lands of Unknown Warriors
Exhibition in the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey, November 2022.