Art Collections Online
On the Stocks
BONE, David Muirhead (1876 - 1953)
On the Stocks - Muirhead Bone
Date: 1917
Media: lithograph on paper
Acquired: 1919; Presented by Ministry of Information
Accession Number: NWM A 13183
Collection: The Great War: Britain's Efforts and Ideals
Muirhead Bone was the first appointed official war artist. As one of Britain’s leading draughtsmen, he was renowned for the almost photographic detail he achieved in his drawings. As well as recording the war on the Front, Bone spent time on the Clyde in Scotland, documenting shipbuilding. He sketched with a notebook strapped to his hand. These prints show different stages in the building, as well as views of the yard, one from the top of crane. One journalist wrote that his series, ‘delights in the intricacies of scaffolding and mechanical contrivances’. These images were also published in a War Office publication, The Western Front, vol II, 1917.
Bone was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art. He settled in London in 1901. He was an official war artist in 1916-1918, and the official Admiralty artist in 1939-1946. Bone was knighted in 1937.