British War Memorials Committee
The British War Memorials Committee was a British Government body that throughout 1918 was responsible for the commissioning of artworks to create a memorial to the
Membership
The original members of the Committee were,
- Lord Rothermere, Chair of the BWMC,
- Alfred Yockney, former editor of The Art Journal and Secretary of the BWMC,
- Lord Beaverbrook,
- Arnold Bennett,
- Paul G. Konody, art critic,
- Charles Masterman,
- Muirhead Bone, artist member,
- Robbie Ross, art advisor,
- Campbell Dodgson, art advisor,
- Thomas Derrick, art advisor,
Also William Orpen and Henry Tonks also acted as advisors to the Committee.[3]
Operations
The BWMC operated three separate schemes, with different terms and conditions, for artists depending on the scale and quantity of work they were expected to produce.
- Scheme One, or the Memorial scheme, was for the production of a single large piece for the central gallery of the Hall of Remembrance for which the artist would be paid £600 for a 20 foot by 7 foot 'super-picture' or £300 for a 72 by 125 or 72 by 86 inch canvas. Smaller works would be bought for £150. Artists on Scheme One contracts included John Singer Sargent, Augustus John, Charles Holmes, Walter Bayes, Philip Wilson Steer, George Clausen and Henry Tonks.[3]
- Scheme Two was designed for younger artists who would be paid £300 per annum, plus any military pay they were receiving, in return for which they would turn over their entire output for six months. During this time they would be allowed no outside work at all, including teaching, but were expected to include one piece in the 'memorial' sizes. Artists on Scheme Two included Christopher Nevinson, was offered a Scheme Two contract but refused and eventually agreed to terms closer to that of Scheme One.[3]
- Scheme Three gave the BWMC the first option to purchase work in return for facilities and access and was used by JD Fergusson, Frank Dobson and William Rothenstein.
In March 1918 the BWMC submitted a request to the
Demise
The BWMC was not without its opponents; many in the Treasury believed that the Government should not be acting as a patron of the arts and the newly formed Imperial War Museum considered much of what the Committee was doing as part of their remitt. As a peer and a newspaper owner, Beaverbrook himself attracted controversy. Beaverbrook's rival newspapers attacked the workings of the Committee and Robbie Ross in particular.[2] Towards the end of the war the British government gave permission for the proceeds from any BWMC exhibitions to be donated to war charities. Beaverbrook had already, without informing the Government, registered the title "British War Memorials Fund" as just such a private charity. The Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Information, R W Needham, objected that Beaverbrook had no right to generate income for a private charity by exhibiting Government funded artworks and that the artists involved had all worked for reduced fees in the national interest. If Beaverbrook wanted the BWMC to continue beyond the war as a private charity then it would have to become independent of the Ministry and then appeal directly to the public for funds.[3] Beaverbrook abandoned the scheme and the war art collection was brought under the direct control of a new "Pictorial Propaganda Committee" within the Ministry. The Pictorial Propaganda Committee first met on the 24 July 1918 and quickly decided to abandon both the sculpture commissions and the Hall of Remembrance but to maintain the existing painting commissions and to designate the Imperial War Museum, IWM, as the future, permanent, home of the collection. In January 1919, the Secretary of the BWMC, Alfred Yockney joined the IWM to oversee the transition.[3]
Legacy
The BWMC left an artistic legacy that included some of the best art to be produced during World War I. This included the seventeen large paintings intended for the Hall of Remembrance, which included Gassed by John Singer Sargent and The Menin Road by Paul Nash, plus two large sculpture reliefs by Charles Sargeant Jagger and Gilbert Ledward and smaller canvases produced by a total of thirty-one artists.[2] The structure and methods used by the BWMC provided the model on which Kenneth Clark based the, much larger, War Artists' Advisory Committee during the Second World War.[2]
References
- ^ Roger Tolson. "More about IWM". Art UK. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-906593-00-1.
- ^ ISBN 0-7181-2314-X.
- ^ Ulrike Smalley. "How The British Government Sponsored The Arts In The First World War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
- ^ Richard Cork (1994). A Bitter Truth - Avant Garde Art and the Great War. Yale University Press & The Barbican Art Gallery.
- ISBN 978-178023-374-1.