Artists at war

Established at the outbreak of war in 1939, the War Artists Advisory Committee was chaired by Sir Kenneth Clark and included representatives of the armed forces and the Ministry of Information.

The Committee's brief was to create an artistic record of all aspects of World War II, and to 'draw up a list of artists qualified to record the War at home and abroad'. A similar scheme had existed during World War I which had resulted in a large body of artistic work being deposited with the Imperial War Museum, London.

The Treasury allowed the Committee to sanction a larger number of commissions during World War II, though they were smaller and less grandiose than their previous counterparts and frequently in watercolour. The use of watercolour allowed a more spontaneous recording of events which made them less formal.

All of the works included in this theme were donated to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery by the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) in 1947.