Reframing War: British Military Painting 1854 to 1918. Two
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Reframing War: British Military Painting 1854 to 1918. Two Volumes Volume 1 of 2 Dorothy Nott PhD University of York History of Art April 2015 ABSTRACT In this thesis I argue for a reassessment of the place within art historical research of a neglected cohort of late-Victorian battle artists who continued to paint military scenes into the second decade of the twentieth century. I chart the move towards a graphic representation of the rank and file in the art of Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933) which served to alert the public and the art world to the brutal effects of war on the individual soldier and how this move impacted on her fellow late-Victorian, and now little-known, battle artists such as Ernest Crofts (1847-1911), John Charlton (1849- 1917), Richard Caton Woodville (1856-1927), William Barnes Wollen (1857-1936), and Godfrey Douglas Giles (1857-1941). I examine their visual representations of a growing awareness of the actual consequences of war on the ordinary soldier, and look at the effects on their art of an increasing imperialistic outlook at the end of the nineteenth century, and especially during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), within the context of an expanding media, technological developments, photography and changes in uniform. A particular focus is the effect on their art of the change from scarlet to khaki in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A primary concern of this thesis is the exploration of the “modernity” of late nineteenth-century British battle painting and the relationship of selected works by these artists to that elusive and ill- defined term, modernism. It is within this context that I explore the reception of these artists and their works by contemporary audiences alongside their transition into the twentieth century. The reasons for their declining popularity and complete omission from the official war artist schemes of the First World War are examined together with their legacy into the twenty-first century. 2 LIST OF CONTENTS Page Number VOLUME 1 ABSTRACT 2 LIST OF CONTENTS 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 13 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION 14 INTRODUCTION 15 CHAPTER ONE THE CHANGING FACE OF BATTLE: ELIZABETH BUTLER’S MILITARY PAINTING 31 Visualising Humanity 36 Visualising Soldiers 43 The Spectacle of War 52 The Pathos of War 61 CHAPTER TWO THE ‘BOHEMIAN WITH A BRUSH’ RICHARD CATON WOODVILLE AND HIS CONTEMPORIES 79 Imperial Representations 86 Muscular Christianity 106 The Pleasure Culture of War 109 3 Press and Propaganda 117 The Pro-Boers 122 CHAPTER THREE RELINQUISHING SCARLET 130 Gentlemen in Khaki: “A Richer Dust” 133 Photography 147 CHAPTER FOUR EXHIBITING WAR; EXHIBITING HISTORY 159 A Challenging Transition 163 Exhibiting War 168 Exhibiting History 192 Contemporary History Paintings and Public Entertainment 206 CHAPTER FIVE “MANDARISM” VERSUS MODERNISM 213 The “Alleged Miracle” of World War One Official War Artist Schemes 215 Butler and the Politics of Inclusion 225 Sargent’s “Gassed” 228 CONCLUSION 240 A Question of Legacy 240 Those Neglected Works 254 ABBREVIATIONS 258 4 BIBLIOGRAPHY 260 Newspapers and Periodicals 260 Unpublished Sources 261 Published Sources 262 VOLUME 2 LIST OF CONTENTS 330 ILLUSTRATIONS 331 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Butler, Elizabeth, Missing (1873), dimensions unknown, (original, oil on canvas), whereabouts unknown; image from photograph provided by Viscount Gormanston for the exhibition, Lady Butler, Battle Artist 1846-1933 at the National Army Museum, 1987. Figure 2 Meissonier, Jean-Louis Ernest, 1814: Campagne de France (1864), 51.5 x 76.5, oil on wood, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, accession no: 94DE58708/RF1862. Figure 3 Barker, Thomas Jones, The Charger of Captain Nolan Bearing Back his Master to the British Lines (1855), 43 x 53.5, oil on board, National Gallery of Dublin, accession no: NGI 1965. Figure 4 Butler, Elizabeth, Image from Sketchbook (1862), National Army Museum, London, accession no: 6310- 353-2. Figure 5 Butler, Elizabeth, Calling the Roll after an Engagement, Crimea (1874), 91 x 182.9, oil on canvas, Royal Collection Trust/©HM Queen Elizabeth II, accession no: RCIN 405915. Figure 6 Butler, Elizabeth, Balaclava (1876), 103.4 x 187.5, oil on canvas, Manchester City Art Gallery, accession no: 1898.13. Figure 7 Turner, Joseph Mallord William, Field of Waterloo (1818), 147.3 x 238.8, oil on canvas, Tate Britain, London, accession no: N00500. Figure 8 Woodville, Richard Caton, Saving the Guns at Maiwand (1882), 133 x 199, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, accession no: WAG 140. Figure 9 Woodville, Richard Caton, The Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman (1898), 153.4 x 245.8, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, accession no: WAG 152. Figure 10 Butler, Elizabeth, Dawn of Waterloo. The “Réveille” in the Bivouac of the Scots Greys on the Morning of the Battle (1893-95), 126.4 x 196.3, Falkland Palace, Fifeshire. Figure 11 Butler, Elizabeth, detail of Dawn at Waterloo. 6 Figure 12 Butler, Elizabeth, detail of Dawn of Waterloo. Figure 13 Butler, Elizabeth, Evicted (1890), 236 x 177.8, oil on canvas, Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, accession no: D132.10.00001. Figure 14 Butler, Elizabeth, The Defence of Rorke’s Drift (1880), 120.2 x 214, oil on canvas, Royal Collection Trust/©HM Queen Elizabeth II, accession no: RCIN 405897. Figure 15 Paton, Joseph Noel, Home (The Return from the Crimea) (1855-56 and 1859), 94 x 79, oil on panel, Royal Collection Trust/©HM Queen Elizabeth II, accession no: RCIN 406954. Figure 16 Barker, Thomas Jones, The Allied Generals with their Officers of their Respective Staffs before Sebastopol (1856), 64.2 x 141, oil on canvas, private collection. Figure 17 Luard, John D’Albiac, A Welcome Arrival (1857), 75.5 x 100.9, oil on canvas, National Army Museum, London, accession no: 1958-08-18-1. Figure 18 Simpson, William, Commissariat Difficulties (1855), from Seat of the War in the East, 27 x 42, lithograph, National Army Museum, London, accession no: NAM. 1971-02-33-490-13, image 142111. Figure 19 Simpson, William, Summer in the Crimea (1857), 24.9 x 35.4, watercolour over pencil, the British Museum, London, accession no: 1971,0515.10. Figure 20 Paton, Joseph Noel, The Commander-in-Chief, Crimea (1855), 33.7 x 45.7, pen and ink, private collection. Figure 21 Brown, Ford Madox, Work (1852-65), 137 x 197.3, oil on canvas, Manchester City Art Gallery, accession no: 1885.1. Figure 22 Leech, John, Grand Military Spectacle: The Heroes of the Crimea Inspecting the Field Marshals (1855), wood engraving, Punch xxix, 179-3, November 1855. Figure 23 Fenton, Roger, Hardships in Camp (1855), wet collodion print, Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas. 7 Figure 24 Fenton, Roger, Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855), wet collodion print, Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas. Figure 25 Pott, Laslett John, On the March from Moscow (1873), 80 x 119.5, oil on canvas, private collection. Figure 26 Fildes, Samuel Luke, Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward (1874), 142.3 x 247.7, oil on canvas, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, accession no: THC 0021. Figure 27 Butler, Elizabeth, detail of Balaclava. Figure 28 Sargent, John Singer, Gassed (1919), 231 x 611.1, oil on canvas, Imperial War Museum, London, accession no: IWM ART 1460. Figure 29 Butler, Elizabeth, detail of Balaclava. Figure 30 Butler, Elizabeth, detail of Balaclava. Figure 31 Butler, Elizabeth, detail of Balaclava. Figure 32 Kennington, Eric, The Kensingtons at Laventie (1915), 139.7 x 152.4, oil on glass, Imperial War Museum, London, accession no: IWM ART 15661. Figure 33 Woodville, Richard Caton, All That Was Left of Them (1902), 66 x 99, oil on canvas, Queens Own Lancers, Thoresby, Nottinghamshire, accession no: 17.28. Figure 34 Butler, Elizabeth, The Remnants of an Army, Jellalabad, January 13th1842 (1879), 132 x 234, oil on canvas, Tate Britain, London, accession no: N01553. Figure 35 Woodville, Richard Caton, The Next Moment I Felt Myself Soaring Skyward (1923), 13.3 x 22.5, watercolour, Treasure House, Beverley on loan from Burnby Hall, Pocklington, East Yorkshire, accession no: DDBU/1/5/32. Figure 36 Woodville, Richard Caton, Gentleman in Khaki (1899), statue in bronze, taken from the illustration to accompany The Absent-minded Beggar by Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Sullivan. Various venues. Figure 37 Butler, Elizabeth, The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras (1875), 97.2 x 216.2, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, accession no: P-309.9-1. 8 Figure 38 Woodville, Richard Caton, Cronje Surrenders to Lord Roberts at Paardeberg, wood engraving, Illustrated London News, 31 March 1900. Figure 39 Woodville, Richard Caton, Their Ordeal by Fire: the Grenadier Guards at the Battle of Biddulphs Berg, wood engraving, Illustrated London News, 28 July 1900. Figure 40 Woodville, Richard Caton, The Night Charge of the 19th Hussars near Lydenberg on November 7th 1900, wood engraving, Illustrated London News, 15 December 1900. Figure 41 Woodville, Richard Caton, The Relief of the Light Brigade, 25 October 1854 (1897), 76.2 x 114.3, oil on canvas, National Army Museum, London, accession no: 1989-01-1-1. Figure 42 Woodville, Richard Caton, The Dangers of Mercy: Indian Ambulance-Bearers under Fire, wood engraving, Illustrated London News, 9 June 1900. Figure 43 Giles, Godfrey Douglas, The Race for the Kopje (1902), 106.7 x 162.5, oil on canvas, Horsepower: the Museum of the Kings Royal Hussars, Winchester, accession no. 613. Figure 44 Bacon, John Henry Frederick, The Relief of Ladysmith (1900) 76 x 114, oil on canvas. National Army Museum, accession no: NAM 1996-04-1-1.