The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals 2 August 2014 The most ambitious print project of the First World WarThis exhibition presents the complete print series, The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals. These sixty-six prints were produced by the British government in 1917 as artistic propaganda with the aim of encouraging a war-weary public and raising support for the war effort.Eighteen artists contributed to the series, including Augustus John, George Clausen and Frank Brangwyn – some of the most celebrated artists of the time.As a government commission, the artists did not have full artistic freedom. They were given their subjects and each image had to pass censorship regulations.The prints are divided into two sets of portfolios, ‘Ideals’ and ‘Efforts’. The ‘Ideals’ address the question of why Britain was at war and what it aimed to achieve. These images are dramatic and symbolic, such as The Freedom of the Seas and The Triumph of Democracy. The ‘Efforts’ illustrate some of the activities of the war effort, the means by which Britain was to achieve the ‘Ideals’. The Efforts are separated into nine subject headings, each depicting a different activity or theme.Producing and ExhibitingThese prints were commissioned by Wellington House, a government department secretly set up to produce propaganda. The project was managed by the artist Thomas Derrick (1885–1954), and the printing carried out under the direction of the artist and contributor F. Ernest Jackson (1872–1945). The printer was Avenue Press, London.The contributing artists were paid well, each receiving £210 (about £10,000 today) with the possibility of further royalties from sales. The prints were a limited edition of two hundred. The ‘Efforts’ were sold for £2 2s 0d (£100) each and the ‘Ideals’ for £10 10s 0d (£500).As a government commission, the artists did not have full artistic freedom. They were given their subjects and each image had to pass censorship regulations.The series was first exhibited at the Fine Art Society, London in July 1917, followed by regional art galleries around Britain. It was also shown in France and in America, where the majority of the portfolios were sent to be exhibited and sold.Contemporary Reaction to Prints“The very soul of the war is to be read in the set of sixty-six brilliant lithographs.” (The Illustrated London News, 1917)These prints were commissioned as propaganda with the specific aim of raising civilian morale and manipulating public opinion towards the First World War in Britain and abroad. In 1917, after three years of hard fighting and unprecedented loss of life, the government needed a new way to maintain public support for the war. These prints were designed to remind people of the aims and objectives, and emphasise the importance of patriotic duty.It is hard to know whether the prints were successful as propaganda. They were widely published when first exhibited in 1917. Some journalists supported the message, “To see these lithographs is a patriotic as well as an artistic duty” (Burton Daily Mail, Feb 15, 1918). Others were not so positive, “their efforts are in almost every instance sincere; yet the result is, on the whole, meagre and unsatisfying.” (The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 1917). In America, the reaction initially seemed positive, ‘they have been a revelation to American Fifth Avenue art patrons, dealer, critics…They put up British prestige’. However, prints sales there did not meet expectations and a loss was made on the project as a whole.Lithography and the Senefelder Club‘The most brilliant of the younger men are all now making remarkable lithographs…there is a genuine renaissance of the art’ (Joseph Pennell, 1914)Lithography is a printing technique based on the principle that oil and water do not mix. An artist draws an image onto a smooth surface, traditionally a limestone, with a greasy material. Ink is then rolled onto the surface, it is attracted to the drawing, but repelled by the dampened un-drawn areas. Paper is laid down on the stone and run through a press. Different effects can be achieved using different greasy materials to draw. These can imitate a chalk or pencil drawing or even watercolour. Many of these prints were produced using a ‘transfer’ method, where a drawing made on special paper is transferred to the stone, rather than working on it directly. For colour lithographs, the artist begins with the design on a key-stone using one colour. Any further colours require a different stone, inked up and printed one on top of another.Many of the contributing artists were members of the Senefelder club, a small club set up in 1908 to encourage and revive artistic lithography. It was named after the 18th century German inventor of the process. This portfolio was produced at a time of a revival of interest in the artistic opportunities of lithography. Ideals The Freedom of the Seas - Frank Brangwyn The Reign of Justice - Edmund J. Sullivan The Rebirth of the Arts - Charles Shannon The Triumph of Democracy - William Rothenstein Italia Redenta - Charles Ricketts The End of War - Sir William Nicholson The Restoration of Serbia - Gerald Moira United Defence Against Aggression (England and France, 1914) - F. Ernest Jackson The Restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France - Maurice Greiffenhagen Poland a Nation - Edmund Dulac The Reconstruction of Belgium - George Clausen The Dawn - Augustus John “To lose sight of Britain's ultimate ideals of freedom and democratic justice is to reduce the present war to nothing less than a carnival of carnage” (Burton Daily Mail, Feb 15, 1918)Twelve artists each contributed a large colour lithograph to this section. Some of the artists, including Brangwyn and F. Ernest Jackson, were accomplished lithographers, whilst for others, such as Clausen and Grieffenhagen, it was the first time that they had used the technique.The Ideals express the aims and ambitions of the war through use of allegory and symbolism. Allegory is a traditional form of representation in art in which historical or mythological figures are used to communicate broader ideas and concepts. In Ideals, the message and meaning of the composition is referenced by the title of each work. Countries and concepts are represented as figures and forms. Although allegorical representation had been out of artistic fashion for some time when these prints were made, it was used here as a propaganda tool to emphasise the importance of the objectives. Through grandiose associations, the prints aimed to justify the means and realities of the war for ordinary people.Although many people praised the project, The Ideals received some criticism for their idealistic portrayal of war. Making Soldiers Bringing in Prisoners - Eric Kennington Over the Top - Eric Kennington Into the Trenches - Eric Kennington Ready for Service - Eric Kennington The Gas Mask - Eric Kennington Bayonet Practice - Eric Kennington Showing soldiers in training and at the Front, one journalist described these prints as capturing ‘the spirit of our new, young army’. Kennington was probably chosen for this subject as he had himself enlisted with the 13th (Kensington) Battalion London Regiment and fought on the Western Front, France, 1914-1915. He was wounded and discharged as unfit in 1915. These prints do not attempt to depict the horror and tragedy of war; as in most of his war art, Kennington instead champions the common soldier.Kennington was born in Chelsea, London, the son of a well-known portrait artist. He studied at St Paul’s Art School, the Lambeth School of Art and the City and Guilds School. He was appointed an official war artist from 1917-1919 and again in 1940-1943, painting portraits of sailors and airmen. Making Sailors Youthful Ambition - Frank Brangwyn The Gun - Frank Brangwyn The Look-out - Frank Brangwyn Going Abroad - Frank Brangwyn Boat-drill - Frank Brangwyn Duff - Frank Brangwyn Brangwyn’s subject reflects his interest in the sea. In many of his prints he has exploited the particular quality of lithography that enables artists to create prints similar to sketches and drawings. Brangwyn was deeply affected by the destruction and loss of life in the war, particularly in Belgium, where he had been born. He was never appointed an official war artist, but produced many further lithographs to support various charities.Brangwyn was born in Bruges to an Anglo-Welsh father and Welsh mother from Brecon. The family moved back to Britain and by the age of fifteen Brangwyn was studying under designer and socialist William Morris. As he became successful as a painter, etcher and lithographer, Brangwyn began to travel widely across the world. He had an international reputation at the time of undertaking this commission and was a member of the Senefelder Club, which promoted the medium of lithography. Making Guns Lifting an Inner Tube - George Clausen The Radial Crane - George Clausen Turning a Big Gun - George Clausen The Great Hammer - George Clausen The Furnace - George Clausen Where the Guns are made - George Clausen Clausen researched this set of prints at the Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London, which manufactured armaments, ammunition and explosives for the British Armed Forces. At its peak during the First World War it employed around 80,000 people and extended over 1,30 acres. Clausen was appointed an official war artist in 1917. As an older artist he did not go to the Front line, instead recording activities on the home front.Clausen was born in London to George Clausen Senior, a decorative painter of Danish descent. He attended the Royal College of Art and South Kensington art schools, then the Académie Julian in Paris. He was a founding member of the New English Art Club and was elected Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy in 1904. He was knighted in 1927. Building Ships Ready for Sea - Muirhead Bone A fitting-out basin - Muirhead Bone A workshop - Muirhead Bone A shipyard seen from a big crane - Muirhead Bone On the Stocks - Muirhead Bone A Ship-Yard - Muirhead Bone 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. Building Aircraft Swooping down on a Taube - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Banking at 4,000 feet - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson In the air - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Acetylene Welder - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Assembling Parts - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Making the Engine - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Nevinson’s prints were particularly admired when first exhibited. He ‘contrives to make the visitor almost giddy’, one critic wrote, another that he possessed ‘the power of expressing sensations rather than visual facts’.Nevinson studied lithography under Ernest Jackson in 1912. At the outbreak of war he volunteered as an ambulance driver, an experience which deeply affected him. He was appointed an official war artist in 1917. These prints follow the process of building aircraft from making parts to assembly and flight. Acetylene Welder and Assembling parts both show the growing contribution of women workers.Nevinson was born in London to the war correspondent and journalist Henry Nevinson. He studied at the Slade School and in Paris. He is one of the most renowned war artists of the period. His work was influenced by avant-garde European art movements such as Cubism and Futurism, yet slowly moved to a more realist style as he attempted to portray conflict. Work on the Land Threshing - William Rothenstein Timber-hauling - William Rothenstein Potato-planting - William Rothenstein Burning couch-grass - William Rothenstein Drilling - William Rothenstein Ploughing - William Rothenstein On 15th May 1917, Rothenstein wrote to Ernest Jackson, ‘I hope to have the 5th drawing finished early this week and the last next week. I will then come up to town and do what is needful to the stones’. He was not happy with some of his early work, writing, ‘somehow the lines seem poor and thin’. He decided to print some in a red/brown colour rather than black. These works are simple and understated, a contrast to the busyness and modernity of war shown in many of the other prints in the series. They take their cue from images of rural labour that characterised much landscape painting from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. They were probably drawn around Stroud, Gloucestershire, where Rothenstein was living.Rothenstein was born in Bradford of German-Jewish descent. He studied at the Slade School of art, London and the Académie Julian, Paris. As well as being appointed official war artist to the British Army 1917-1918, he was artist to the Canadian army in 1919. Between 1920 and 1935 he served as Principal of the Royal College of Art and in 1931 he was knighted. Tending the Wounded Casualty Clearing Station in France - Claude Shepperson Convalescence in England - Claude Shepperson In Hospital in England - Claude Shepperson Detraining in England - Claude Shepperson On Board a Hospital Transport - Claude Shepperson Advanced Dressing Station in France - Claude Shepperson These prints follow the journey of a wounded soldier from the Front Line, through treatment, to convalescence back at home. The organisers initially asked the artist Henry Tonks (1867-1937), a surgeon before becoming an artist, to respond to the work of the medical services. However, Tonks found the paper supplied ‘entirely unsympathetic’for drawing and declined. Shepperson was later commissioned for the subject and produced a very well received series.Shepperson was born in Beckenham, Kent, and was a successful water-colourist, pen and ink artist, illustrator and lithographer. Having given up law he studied art in Paris and London. He is well-known for his humorous drawings contributed to the Punch magazine between 1905 and 1920. Women's work On Munitions: Skilled Work - A. S. Hartrick On Munitions: Heavy work (Drilling and casting) - A. S. Hartrick On Munitions: Dangerous Work (Packing T.N.T) - A. S. Hartrick On the Railways: Engine and Carriage Cleaners - A. S. Hartrick In the Towns: A bus conductress - A. S. Hartrick On the Land: Ploughing - A. S. Hartrick These prints record the vital contribution made by women as part of the war effort. When more men were required for fighting in 1915, there was a call to women to 'do their bit'. In taking on jobs in areas traditionally reserved for men the female workforce raised levels of production both in factories and fields. Although much of the work was both arduous and dangerous, the war allowed many women an unprecedented degree of freedom, and an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in previously male-dominated spheres. Hartrick was sent to make studies on the spot, and many of the compositions seem deliberately posed - as propaganda images they give no indication of the hardships and hazards that women faced on a daily basis.The artist and illustrator Hartrick was born in India and brought up in Scotland. He first studied medicine, before attending the Slade School in London, and art schools in Paris, exhibiting in the 1887 Paris Salon. In 1909 he became a founding member of the Senefelder Club. He also turned to teaching the method, writing an instruction book on Lithography As A Fine Art in 1932. Transport by Sea The Place of Safety - Charles Pears Maintaining Forces Overseas - Charles Pears Transporting Troops - Charles Pears Supplying the Navy - Charles Pears Maintaining Export Trade - Charles Pears Maintaining Food Supplies - Charles Pears The merchant navy undertook vital tasks during the war, supporting naval ships, transporting troops and carrying essential supplies. It was dangerous work and the fleet suffered great losses. Pears’ images capture the ships in great detail.Pears was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire and, although he worked as a successful illustrator and lithographer, is best known for his marine paintings. During the First World War Pears was a commissioned officer in the Royal Marines, and worked as an official naval artist from 1914-1918, and again in 1940. Throughout his career he was also a popular poster designer, creating works for organisations including the London Underground.ConservationEach of the works has been treated in the Paper Conservation studio at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Since their arrival at the Museum in 1919, the prints had been stored in their original mounts and folders for almost 100 years.Many of the prints were foxed (reddish-brown spots) and dirty. This is a sign that the paper is in poor condition and without treatment, would continue to deteriorate.Funding was sought to appoint a trainee Paper conservator to work on this project for five months. All the works were washed, pressed, repaired and re-mounted. They are now in the best possible condition and the new mounts provide excellent storage conditions. This conservation will ensure that they will be preserved for generations to come.Research has also been carried out on the type of paper used for the prints. From the watermark ‘HOLBEIN’ we have discovered that the paper was made by Spalding and Hodge, a paper merchant and manufacturer whose paper mills were located in Kent.
John Constable Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 20 March 2014 Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 John Constable (1776 – 1837) Photograph © Tate, London 2013Purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Manton Foundation and the Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, National Galleries of Scotland; and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. When this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, Constable quoted nine lines from The Four Seasons: Summer (1727) by Scottish poet James Thompson to expand on its meaning.As from the face of heaven the scatter’d clouds Tumultous rove, th’interminable sky Sublimer swells, and o’er the world expands A purer azure. Through the lightened air A higher lustre and a clearer calm Diffusive tremble; while, as if in sign Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, Set off abundant by the yellow ray, Invests the fields, and nature smiles reviv’dJames Thompson, The Seasons: Summer (1727)The poem tells the mythical tale of young lovers Celadon and Amelia. As they walk through the woods in a thunderstorm, the tragic Amelia is struck by lightning, and dies in her lover’s arms. The poem has a religious message: it is an exploration of God’s power, and man’s inability to control his own fate. It is also a poem of hope and redemption. The rainbow appears as a ‘sign of danger past’.The story of Celadon and Amelia has clear resonances with Constable’s own tragic loss. His wife Maria died of tuberculosis in 1828, after just twelve years of marriage. It is likely that the poem had special significance for the young couple. When Maria was unsure whether or not she should marry Constable, he quoted lines from the poem to her, to allay her fears. Explore the Painting Click on the links below to explore the details of the painting Cathedral Storm clouds Rainbow Leadenhall Wooden Bridge St Thomas’ Church Wagon and Cart Cathedral When Constable painted Salisbury Cathedral, the future of the Anglican Church was in doubt. He shows the Cathedral under a black cloud, lightning striking the roof – will it survive the storm? The spire – which Constable described as‘dart[ing] up into the sky like a needle’ - pierces through the darkness into a patch of light, perhaps suggesting his hopes for the future of the Church. Storm clouds When this painting was first exhibited, a reporter for The Morning Herald complained that ‘the sky is in a state of utter derangement’. Others described it as ‘chaos’. It is a key part of the painting’s meaning. For Constable, the sky was more than just a backdrop. It can be used to convey mood and changing emotional states. The sky here is often seen as an expression of the grief and anxiety he felt at this time. His wife Maria had died of tuberculosis in 1828, and he was deeply concerned about the troubles facing the Anglican Church. The vigorous brushwork adds to the emotional charge. Rainbow Constable once said ‘nature… exhibits no feature more lovely nor any that awaken a more soothing reaction than the rainbow’. The rainbow represents a glimmer of hope in turbulent times, a sign that the storm is passing. Leadenhall The rainbow ends at Leadenhall, home of Constable’s supporter and close personal friend, the Archdeacon John Fisher. This is no coincidence: Fisher had provided comfort and emotional support to Constable in his grief after the death of his wife, and it was Fisher that first encouraged Constable to paint Salisbury Cathedral. He died just a year after the painting was first exhibited. Wooden Bridge Constable was fascinated by the humblest details of rural life. ‘Old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things’ he wrote in a letter to his friend John Fisher. The paint here is thick and coarse suggesting the natural texture of the wooden bridge, a simple detail which most artists of the day would have overlooked. St Thomas’ Church Just visible through a clearing in the trees is the parish Church of St Thomas. The Church can’t actually be seen from this viewpoint, so why has Constable drawn attention to it? Is it purely for compositional reasons, or is there another explanation? The answer is uncertain. Wagon and Cart Constable believed that no landscape was complete without traces of everyday life. He would fill his sketchbooks with small details which he would later include in his paintings. Here a horse-drawn wagon crosses the river Nadder. This vignette is often compared to The Hay Wain (1821), one of his best known paintings. The sheepdog appears in other paintings by Constable, such as The Cornfield (1826). Both paintings are in the collection of the National Gallery, London. Download this page as a PDF here.
Railway Posters Mark Etheridge, 4 November 2013 Railway posters displayed at Machynlleth Station, circa. 1930s Railway Posters displayed at Machynlleth Station, circa. 1930s Railway posters are colourful works of art that epitomise the era in which they were produced. Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection comprises about 60 examples, and these provide a good representation of the types of posters produced and displayed all over Wales. Railway posters were a familiar feature when travelling on the railway, being displayed in stations, ticket offices and on platforms hoardings. They were used to entice the public to board the railway and escape from their daily routine. Generally they presented idealised images of popular holiday resorts, such as Tenby and Aberystwyth; historic towns, such as Caernarfon; and the countryside and coastline of north Wales, Pembrokeshire and Gower. These had all been made accessible by the lines on which the railway companies operated. It is often claimed that the railway invented the ‘package holiday’. During the early years of the railways most advertising was in the form of simple printed leaflets and handbills. However these gradually became more elaborate, and with improvements in colour lithography in the later part of the 19th century there was a revolution in poster printing, as the colour poster became cheaper to produce. Although railway posters have been in popular use since the late nineteenth century, it is generally regarded that their heyday was between 1923 (when four large companies, the Great Western Railway, Southern Railway, London, Midland & Scottish, and London & North Eastern Railway were formed) and 1947, when the railways were nationalised. However, Amgueddfa Cymru has many examples of British Railway posters produced in the 1950s and 60s which are equally eye catching and interesting, and often much more bright and cheerful. The jolly fisherman Some posters combined both images and slogans. One of the most famous is John Hassall’s image of a ‘jolly fisherman’ skipping along the beach, and the slogan “Skegness is SO Bracing”. The ‘jolly fisherman’ became the mascot of Skegness and is believed to have contributed to the success of this resort as a holiday destination. A G.W.R. poster by John Hassall in our collection, dating from c.1925, advertises Milford Haven, and depicts a fisherman and a boy holding fish with the slogan “Milford Haven – where fish comes from.” The Museums collection comprises about 60 examples, and these provide a good representation of the types of posters produced and displayed all over Wales. Examples range in date from about 1914 into the 1960s, with the 1950s and 60s very well represented. Each railway company developed their own distinct style, and they all used some of the finest poster artists of the day. Our collection includes excellent examples by Norman Wilkinson, Charles Pears & John Hassall. Museum collections A selection of these posters can now be viewed on our Images of Industry collections database. Further Reading Happy as a Sand-Boy Early Railway Posters by Beverly Cole & Richard Durack (1990) Railway Posters 1923-1947 by Beverly Cole & Richard Durack (1992).
A portrait of Teddy Evans of the Antarctic, Evans of the Broke (1880-1957) 14 June 2013 Petty Officers William Lashly (left) and Tom Crean on board the Terra Nova on her return to Cardiff, 14 June 1913 Evans of the Broke (1880-1957) Teddy Evans was second-in-command of Captain Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition from 1910 to 1913 and, following Scott's demise, in command of the Terra Nova's journey back into the Roath Dock in Cardiff on 14 June 1913. In 1937, when this picture was painted, Admiral Sir Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans (Teddy Evans) was 57 years old and Commander-in-Chief of The Nore, an operational command position of the Royal Navy based at Chatham in Kent. He had had a distinguished naval career, most notably during the First World War when, in command of HMS Broke, he famously rammed a German destroyer in a battle off Dover in 1917. But he was also well-known to the public as second-in-command of Captain Scott's last Antarctic expedition from 1910 to 1913. This painting is one of a series of twenty portraits of eminent Welsh men and women commissioned by Sir Leonard Twiston Davies in 1937 for the National Museum from the artist Sydney Morse-Brown (1903-2001), Principal of Carmarthen School of Art and Inspector of Art in Schools in Wales. The other sitters were selected from a diverse range of fields; they included the playwright and actor Emlyn Williams (1905-1987), former Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Thomas Jones (1870-1955), David Davies, 1st Lord Davies of Llandinam (1880-1944), architect Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978), novelists Richard Hughes (1900-1976), Charles Morgan (1894-1958) and Hilda Vaughan (1892-1985) and the World Flyweight Boxing Champion Jimmy Wilde (1892-1969). Although claiming a Welsh ancestry, Evans' Welsh roots are obscure; he was born on 28 October 1880 in Marylebone in London; his father, Frank, was born in Oldham in Lancashire where his father, Henry Edwin Evans, was a provision merchant. After an unruly childhood, Evans joined the Royal Navy in 1896. In 1902, as a Lieutenant, Evans served as second officer on the Morning, one of two ships sent by the Royal Geographical Society to help free Scott's first expedition ship, Discovery, from the ice of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. In 1909, Evans played on his tenuous Welsh links to seek support in Cardiff for a Welsh National Antarctic Expedition. But within a few months of floating his idea, he was told about Captain Scott's plans to return to Antarctica and was invited to join Scott as second in command. With him, he brought so much Cardiff and Welsh sponsorship that Scott named Cardiff the home port of the expedition ship, the Terra Nova. On Scott's second (and last) expedition, with William Lashly and Tom Crean, Evans was in a supporting sledging party which accompanied Scott to within 150 miles of the South Pole before turning back on 4 January 1912, leaving Scott, Lawrence Oates, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers and Edgar Evans to continue on to the Pole. Teddy Evans, Lashly and Crean were the last to see Scott's Polar Party alive. Evans himself came close to death on his return journey to the expedition base hut. Suffering from scurvy, Evans had to be dragged on the sledge by Lashly and Crean. On 18 February 1912, leaving Lashly with the severely ill Evans, Crean pushed on, alone, for the final 35 miles to get help. Crean and Lashly were later awarded the Albert Medal for saving Evans. After a period of recovery in England, Evans returned to Antarctica in charge of the Terra Nova to collect the expedition members and the Polar Party. On arriving at the base hut, with the ship decorated for celebration of a successful attempt on the Pole, he received the news that Scott and his companions had perished on their return journey. Now in command of the expedition, Evans brought the Terra Nova back into the Roath Dock in Cardiff on 14 June 1913. Evans' career culminated in a peerage in 1945, as first Baron Mountevans. He died in Norway on 20 August 1957.
Perseus and the Graiae: Explore the Painting 2 May 2013 Persius and the Graiae Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), 1877 This remarkable work occupies the boundary between painting and sculpture and was the centerpiece of one of Burne-Jones's most ambitious narrative schemes. In 1875 the young conservative MP Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), who would later become Prime Minister, commissioned a cycle of narrative works for the drawing room of his London home. Burne-Jones selected the legend of the Greek hero Perseus, devising a sequence of ten scenes to tell this story – six were to be oil paintings and the remaining four were to be low relief panels. All ten were to be set in an elaborate framework of acanthus scrolls which would run around the upper walls of the drawing room. However, this work was not well-received when exhibited in 1878 and Burne-Jones abandoned the remaining reliefs, meaning this is the only example. Explore the Painting Use the links below to navigate around the painting to discover more about story of Perseus and the Graiae and how this work was made. Perseus The eye of the Graiae Latin Text Painted faces and hands Gilt Gesso Perseus Perseus was a hero from Greek mythology. He was a demi-god – the son of the god Zeus and Danaë, the human daughter of the King of Argos. Burne-Jones concentrated on the most familiar episodes of the Perseus legend – the hero's search for the gorgon Medusa, his killing of her and his rescue of the beautiful Andromeda. The eye of the Graiae The Graiae were three perpetually old women who were sisters to the gorgons and had only one eye and one tooth between them. Between his fingers, Perseus holds their single eye. As the women passed the eye between them Perseus stole it, using the promise of its return to make them tell him the way to find Medusa. Latin Text This long Latin text tells Perseus's story. The letters are carved mahogany and have been gessoed, gilded and pinned to the oak panel individually. A close examination reveals the chalk lines that were drawn to guide the original placing of the letters. Burne-Jones used a poetic narrative of the legend taken from the version written by his good friend William Morris (Earthly Paradise, 1868-70). Painted faces and hands The faces and hands of the figures have been painted in oil directly on to the oak panel and the texture of the wood shows through this paint layer. Burne-Jones left the grainy surface of the rest of the panel unpainted, creating a barren background for the image. Gilt Gesso The bodies, limbs and clothing of the figures have been modeled in low-relief gesso. Burne-Jones worked with the highly-skilled gesso specialist Osmund Weeks to create this extraordinary example. Gesso is traditionally made of rabbit skin glue and chalk. It was applied wet and then when dry carefully carved and incised to create form and detail. The gesso was then painted (red beneath the gold areas and dark grey beneath the silver) before gold and silver leaf was applied.
