Author(s): National Gallery of Australia

Artists & Styles

If you think you know the work of Arthur Streeton, his war art will make you think again. While resident in London in 1915, Streeton joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, working as an orderly at the 3rd London General Hospital, where he came to understand the impact of war. His response to the tumult of the First World War is poignantly encapsulated in the works he produced as an Official War Artist in France from May to November 1918. As an artist best known for his lyrical landscapes, his depictions of the modern machines of war are unexpected, and yet they make sense. To a large extent, technology was what made the First World War so devastating, and Streeton was there in the last months to observe its impact on the troops, towns and landscape. His vision of damaged guns, planes and places serves as a metaphor for the many maimed and shell-shocked servicemen he encountered. This publication reproduces key works from that period from collections around Australia and overseas and is a key record of the war and Streeton¿s involvement in it.