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Bc. Martin Fiala Master's Diploma Thesis the 'ART RAID' on BRITAIN: the DEPICTION of HEROISM in BRITISH ARTS 1939-1945

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Bc. Martin Fiala Master's Diploma Thesis the 'ART RAID' on BRITAIN: the DEPICTION of HEROISM in BRITISH ARTS 1939-1945 Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of the History of Arts History of Arts Bc. Martin Fiala Master’s Diploma Thesis THE ‘ART RAID’ ON BRITAIN: THE DEPICTION OF HEROISM IN BRITISH ARTS 1939-1945 Thesis coordinator: doc. PhDr. Ladislav Kesner, Ph. D. Brno 2019 2 Declaration: I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. Brno, April 30th, 2019 Martin Fiala (428358) 3 Acknowledgments: I would first and foremost like to thank my thesis coordinator, doc. PhDr. Ladislav Kesner, Ph. D., for his guidance, valuable notes throughout the entire process of research and writing of this diploma thesis and for his constant availability whenever I needed to discuss something. I would also like to thank PhDr. Aleš Filip, Ph.D. and František Mikš, for consultations and enlightening discussions on the subject. Last but not least, I thank Graeme Dibble for the grammar corrections. Final ‘thank you’ goes to my family, for the support and advices. 4 Table of Contents: Opening Statements .................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 5 Preface ........................................................................................................................................ 7 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 9 1.1. Art from the Second World War .............................................................................. 9 1.2. Main Thesis ............................................................................................................ 10 1.3. Research Questions ................................................................................................ 13 1.4. Thesis Structure ...................................................................................................... 14 1.5. Hypothetical Conclusion ........................................................................................ 16 1.6. Works Previously Written on the Subject: Fine Art............................................... 17 1.7. Works Previously Written on the Subject: Feature Films ...................................... 18 2. Methodology .................................................................................................................... 19 3. PART ONE: Overall Historical Context .......................................................................... 20 3.1. The Art from the First World War ......................................................................... 20 3.2. Ministry of Information .......................................................................................... 23 3.3. Creation of the War Artists' Advisory Committee .................................................. 26 3.4. British Film Industry during the Second World War ............................................. 35 4. PART TWO: Static Pictures - Paintings .......................................................................... 36 4.1. Chapter Introduction .............................................................................................. 36 4.2. Portraits: Individual Faces of the War .................................................................... 40 4.3. War Machine Landscapes: The Glorification of British Industry .......................... 53 4.4. Battlefield Landscapes: Heroes in Action .............................................................. 61 4.5. Home Front: Daily Sacrifices of the 'Common Folk' ............................................. 69 5. PART THREE: Motion Pictures – Feature Films ............................................................ 79 5.1. Chapter Introduction .............................................................................................. 79 5 5.2. In Which We Serve from 1942 ................................................................................ 83 5.3. Night Train to Munich from 1940 .......................................................................... 88 6. PART FOUR: Ideology Behind Art – A Comparsion Between Britain and Germany .... 94 6.1. Chapter Introduction .............................................................................................. 94 6.2. War Propaganda in Britain ..................................................................................... 95 6.3. War Propaganda in Germany ................................................................................. 97 6.4. Ideology Behind Propaganda ................................................................................. 99 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 101 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 103 List of Films ........................................................................................................................... 106 Pictures & Illustrations ........................................................................................................... 106 Words Counter: 23 353 / Signs Counter: 130 041 6 Preface The year is 1940, the early days of July. Almost all of Europe has been taken over by Nazi- Germany, while the United States is nowhere to be seen just yet. Great Britain has a new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Adolf Hitler is about to start what is supposed to be a crushing attack on the United Kingdom, beginning with several intensive air raids. Looking back on the tragic appeasement policy of Chamberlain’s government, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the huge advantages that Germans had – apparently everything was going against the British people. “In September 1939, Germany possessed the best-organized and best professionally- trained strategic bombing force in the world […] The Luftwaffe had planned to quickly clear the Channel of the British navy, assure air superiority over the British fighter squadrons […] All that was to be the prelude to an amphibious invasion of Great Britain.”1 Yet we all know how it turned out in the end. My thesis will deal with one aspect of this historic turnaround; heroism and specifically the heroism of the British people and its portrayal in art between 1939 and 1945. I can safely identify two inspirational sources which sparked my interested in the question of heroism and eventually led me to choose this subject as my master’s diploma thesis. Number one, is my love of films, particularly the James Bond film series. As the longest running film franchise in history (57 years old in 2019), the Bond films are known for changing with the times and reflecting upon the current state of affairs around the world. Watching these films led me to start thinking more about the concepts of heroism, since James Bond himself goes through some very radical character changes as the series progresses. All you need to do is to look at Roger Moore’s almost parodic portrayal of the archetypal British hero in The Spy Who Loved Me2 and compare it to Casino Royale3 and Daniel Craig’s brooding anti-hero, whose character makes a number of fatal mistakes throughout the film. Which historical circumstances are driving these radical changes in film characters? 1 HANSON, Victor Davis. The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. First Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2017, ISBN 9780465066988, pages 80 and 88. 2 The Spy Who Loved Me [film]. Directed by Lewis GILBERT. United Kingdom, 1977. 3 Casino Royale [film]. Directed by Martin CAMPBELL. United Kingdom, 2006. 7 Another good example of changing the concept of hero within one film series is the Superman films. All we have to do is watch how Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of Superman4 from 1978 differs from the character Henry Cavil plays in 2013’s Man of Steel5. What you can observe are two totally different takes on what heroism is and what makes a character a hero. The second inspirational source is my general affinity with British culture. Since childhood, most of the books I have liked or films I have seen are of British origin and are typical of British culture in one way or another. And the very last reason I want to mention is the fact that in recent years I have read many books about the Second World War, for instance Andrew Roberts’ comprehensive biography on Winston Churchill or Victor Davis Hanson’s innovative look at the Second World War, as already cited above. These books made me realize something. Something I never learned from the history lessons at school – how historically special and extraordinary the British stand against Germany was during the Second World War, and that there is still much to discover about the spirit and heroism of the British people at that time. What was the role of art and propaganda in this historical national mobilization? The aim of my thesis is to shed a light on this. I should add that I was unable to work with primary materials from the archives. This thesis is therefore written in its entirety using only secondary sources. Another note is that all the pictures in this thesis are directly downloaded from official museum websites, so the scans are as close to reality as possible. All of the screenshots from the films were
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