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WORLD WAR II AND CANADIAN LANDSCAPES
works were created, but came to an end in 1995, the victim of widespread
governmental funding cuts. However, it would seem that a war art programme
had become part of the armed forces" DNA: in 2001, once the financial situa¬
tion had improved, the programme was revived in a slightly altered form, as
the Canadian Forces Artists Programme. This time the decision was taken to
expand the range of artists to include musicians, actors, writers and media
artists in addition to painters, sculptors and filmmakers. This programme is
ongoing, and so far has involved around 80 individuals, who have produced
more than 200 works in a wide variety of fields. High standards are ensured
by the selection committee for the programme, which includes members named
by the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum and the Can¬
ada Council as well as representatives of artists and veterans. The aim of the
CFAP is to support “independent, creative works in various media, capturing
daily operations, the men and women who serve [and] the spirit of the Cana¬
dian Forces”. To do so, the artists are brought “wherever operational conditions
allow,” where they receive “the same food and lodging as the service members
have to ensure a fully incorporate experience wherever possible” (“About the
Canadian Forces Artists Program”).
In addition to the acquisitions that came via these four initiatives, the
Canadian War Museum also houses paintings and other items created during
this same period outside the official programmes, as well as earlier works
and objects dating back to the pre-contact era. Altogether these amount to
some 13,000 items, making it second in size only to the war art collection
at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, which boasts around 14,000
items in all.
In this article I will focus on the programme launched during the Second
World War, when the bulk of the works created within the official programmes
originated, showing how the artists’ work reflected current trends in painting,
the specific conditions of World War II and the terms under which the war
artists were commissioned. I will also explore the differences between the work
and experiences of the Second World War artists and their compatriots in
World War I.
In all four avatars of the official war art programmes, landscapes” have
played a key role. Not only is this “natural” — military conflict is shaped by and
takes place in specific spaces — but more importantly, the landscape tradition
has been central to Canadian painting in a way that is not true of, for example,
British or American painting. Its beginnings can be traced back to the topo¬
graphical skills that marked officers in the British Army: before the age of
brainchild of Lester B. Pearson, at that time Canada’s Secretary of State for External Affairs
and later the country’s Prime Minister.
? In this article I use “landscape” in the broad sense of the term, to include such sub-genres as
seascapes and skyscapes as well as works that imply a wider setting beyond the actual image.
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