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WORLD WAR II AND CANADIAN LANDSCAPES
——o—
Don SPARLING
Abstract
The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa houses one of the world’s largest col¬
lections of war art. The largest part of this was created in the course of four
official programmes, beginning in World War I and continuing down to the
present, whose aim has been to commission works recording the contribution
of Canada to the various conflicts in which its armed forces have been involved
over the years. This article gives an overview of the programmes and then
focuses on the work created during World War IL, and specifically on landscapes
in the broadest sense of the term as the genre that is often regarded as central
to the Canadian artistic heritage.
Keywords: war art, armed forces, World War II, Canadian War Museum
Résumé
Le Musée canadien de la guerre à Ottawa abrite l’une des plus importantes
collections d’art militaire au monde. La plus grande partie de cette collection
a été créée au cours de quatre programmes officiels, depuis la Première Guerre
mondiale jusqu’à aujourd’hui, dont l'objectif était de rassembler des œuvres
témoignant de la contribution du Canada aux différents conflits dans lesquels
ses forces armées ont été impliquées au fil des ans. Cet article donne un aperçu
des programmes et se concentre ensuite sur les œuvres créées pendant la
Seconde Guerre mondiale, et plus particulièrement sur les paysages au sens le
plus large du terme, genre souvent considéré comme central dans le patrimoine
artistique canadien.
Mots-clés: art de guerre, forces armées, Seconde Guerre mondiale, Musée
canadien de la guerre
One of Canada’s great cultural treasurers is the massive collection of works of
art recording the country’s military engagements over the past century, which
is now housed at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. This has taken shape
over time through four distinct initiatives. The first was the brainchild of Max
Aitken, later Lord Beaverbrook, a hugely wealthy Canadian newspaper owner
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