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Major Battles in which
the Canadian Expeditionary Force Participated |
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Ypres – May 1915
Festubert and Givenchy – June 1915
St Eloi Craters – April 1916
Mount Sorrel – June 1916
Somme – July – November 1916
Vimy Ridge – April 1917
The Scarpe – April- May 1917
Passchendaele – October – November
1917
Amiens – August 1918
Arras – September 1918
Cambrai – September 1918 Capture of Valenciennes – November 1918
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Sources |
Dean F. Oliver, Laura
Brandon. Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience
1914 to 1945, Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre,
2000.
The Canadian Who's Who, vol. ll. London:
Times Publishing Co., 1936.
Colin S. Macdonald. A Dictionary of Canadian Artists,
vols. 1-7, Ottawa: Canadian Paperbacks Publishing
Ltd., various publication dates.
Maria Tippett. Art at the Service of War
- Canada, Art, and the Great War, Toronto,
University of Toronto Press, 1984.
Rosemarie L. Tovell. A New Class of Art, The Artist's
Print in Canada, 1877-1920, Ottawa: National Gallery
of Canada, 1996.
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Other Web Sites with
Information about the First World War
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The Artists
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Caroline H. Armington
(1875-1939) |
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Caroline Armington and her artist husband,
Frank Armington (1876-1941) spent the majority of their working
lives in France. Originally from Brampton, Ontario, the young
artist made her living teaching art before training to be a nurse.
In 1900 she made her first visit to Paris, returning there to
live in 1905. With her husband’s encouragement she began
making etchings in 1908. During WWI Armington put her nursing
skills to good use for the American Ambulance Service; however,
always entrepreneurial about promoting her work, she sought a
commission from the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Following her
appointment, she subsequently produced a full edition of prints,
many of which reflected her skill with architectural subject matter. |
Click to see
a
larger image (62K)
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Cyril H. Barraud (1877-1965)
British born Cyril Barraud arrived in Manitoba in 1913 and became
a leading figure in the Winnipeg arts community. He served as
President of the Manitoba Society of Artists and Craftsmen and
in 1915 was a founder of the Winnipeg Art Club. An experienced
artist and printmaker, Barraud’s skills were utilized at
the front after his posting overseas in 1915 as a lieutenant with
the 43rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Throughout
1916 and 1917 Barraud made sketches of the war-torn French countryside
and when, in August of 1917, he was appointed to the Canadian
War Memorials Fund, many of these sketches were executed as full
print editions. |
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Edgar Bundy A.R.A.
(1862-1922)
Edgar Bundy was one of the English artists commissioned to produce
works for the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Around 1918 Bundy produced
a large painting of the landing of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade
at St. Nazaire, France in 1915. Bundy’s print reproduces
this stirring figurative work, which records the colourful entry
of the band of the Black Watch overseen by Canadian generals and
dignitaries and crowds of onlookers. Tied up at dock in the background
is the steamship Novian. |
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Gerard de Witt
Originally from South Africa, Gerard de Witt enlisted in the
Canadian Expeditionary Force in Halifax and travelled to France
as a lieutenant in the 6th Canadian Siege Battery. Although not
well known as a printmaker, de Witt’s etchings dramatically
capture some of the most memorable scenes of the Canadian advance
through Cambrai to Mons in the Fall of 1918. |
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Richard Jack
A. R. A. (1866-1952)
Richard Jack was born in Sunderland, England in 1866. A trained
artist, he soon established a reputation for his portraits, including
those of the English and European monarchy. In November of 1916
Jack, who would not settle in Canada until 1930, received the
first commission of the Canadian War Memorials Fund. Assigned
the rank of major he left England for France where he recorded
scenes of some of the most famous action undertaken by Canadian
troops. The prints of the Second Battle of Ypres and Battle of
Vimy Ridge reproduced his vast canvases, the latter being over
19 feet long. |
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C. W. Jefferys (1869-1951) |
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Charles William Jefferys is perhaps best known for
his historical illustrations in school textbooks, magazines and
newspapers. However, he was also an accomplished landscape painter,
achieving particular renown for his prairie canvases. Born in
England in 1869, Jefferys’ family came to Canada via Philadelphia
in 1881. While ill health prevented Jefferys from going overseas
as an official war artist, both he and Dorothy Stevens received
commissions to document war preparations on the home front. Jefferys’
work focused on training camp activities in Petawawa, Niagara
and Toronto. Although the artist had shown little interest in
printmaking, his early experience as an apprentice at the Toronto
Lithographic Company would prove useful in the execution of the
transfer lithographs he made for the Canadian War Memorials Fund
in 1919. Today, the life and work of this prolific artist is commemorated
by an historic plaque located on the site of Jefferys’ house
and studio in North York, Ontario. |
Click to see a
larger image (62K)
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C. R. W. Nevinson
(1889-1946)
British artist C. R. W. Nevinson was born in London and studied
at the Slade School of Art. In 1912 he moved to Paris to study
at the Académie Julian, and is reputed to have shared a
studio there with Modigliani. Nevinson’s early encounter
with the war occurred in 1914-16 when he served with the Royal
Army Medical Corps and the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. Later,
in 1917, he was appointed an official war artist and returned
to France where he creatively approached his subjects by making
sketches from the air in planes and observation balloons. The
print of Nevinson’s War in the Air reproduces his painting,
now in the Canadian War Museum, of an aerial confrontation involving
one of Canada’s most famous aviation heroes, Billy Bishop. |
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Gyrth Russell (1892-1970) |
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Dartmouth born Gyrth Russell attended the Victoria School of
Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Early on he demonstrated
a strong interest and technical facility in printmaking. Further
study in Boston and then Paris confirmed his stylistic affinity
with the Impressionists which is particularly apparent in his
coloured aquatints. In 1917, Russell was appointed to the Canadian
War Memorials Fund along with fellow Canadian artists, A. Y. Jackson,
Cyril Barraud and James Kerr Lawson. Assigned the rank of Lieutenant,
Russell completed a full set of drypoint etchings for the Fund.
On his discharge from the army, he settled permanently in England
where he continued to paint and exhibit his work until his death
in Penarth, Wales at the age of 78. |
Click to see a
larger image (48K)
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Dorothy Stevens
(1888-1966) |
Between 1904 and 1911 Toronto native Dorothy Stevens received
her art training in some of the most prestigious schools of London
and Paris. By the time of her return to Canada in 1911 she was
well travelled and demonstrated a high level of skill in printmaking.
In Toronto the artist continued to develop her reputation, garnering
excellent exhibition reviews and a Silver medal at the Panama-Pacific
International Exhibition in San Francisco for the 19 etchings
she displayed there. In addition to her etchings, Stevens also
acquired a reputation as a fine portrait artist and many of her
works can be found today in the collections of the National Gallery
of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 1919, Stevens solicited
a commission from the Canadian War Memorials Fund. This resulted
in a set of etchings documenting the home front activities of
the Toronto shipbuilding yards and the munitions workers at the
British Forgings plant. At the close of the war, she returned
again to Europe on a travelling scholarship to continue her art.
Stevens died in Toronto in 1966 at the age of 78. |
Click to see a
larger image (61K)
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