Conflict and consolation: British art and the First World War, 1914-1919

Abstract

Most studies of British art during the First World War have focused on the way that artists represented the horrors of the confl ict. This essay instead focuses on how they helped the nation overcome them. It describes how landscapists offered viewers pleasing escapes from the ongoing hostilities; how portraitists consoled the bereaved by commemorating the men who were killed in action; and how, towards the end of the war, many came to see art as an invaluable tool in the recovery of both individuals and the nation. This essay unearths a large quantity of hitherto forgotten imagery that challenges modernist accounts of the period, and offers an intimate insight into the cultural history of the First World War. In the process, it argues that the hardships of war did not weaken but strengthened the relationship between the British people and British art.