Some of the paintings displayed in the on-going War Artists' exhibition.

Exhibitions and War Artists

In December 1939 the Director of the National Gallery, Kenneth Clark, proposed to the Trustees that the Gallery should continue to make pictures available to the public. He suggested a loan exhibition of recent British painting. The idea was accepted and the first temporary exhibition British Painting since Whistler opened to the public on 30 March 1940. When it closed at the end of August it had attracted over 40,000 visitors. The exhibition was controversial but also a great success.

The Gallery continued to make pictures available to the public. It staged a further nineteen temporary exhibitions and alongside these it also ran a single, constantly renewing exhibition. This was the display of the work of Britain's War Artists. The War Artists Scheme had been initiated by Kenneth Clark in the early days of the war, and he was appointed chairman of the War Artists Advisory Committee. The aim of the Committee was to acquire for the nation pictures recording all aspects of the war both at home and abroad.

Visitors to the Gallery enjoyed looking at works of art by living artists on subjects central to their own lives. Some of the most famous works were by artists such as Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Paul Nash.

By the end of the war, the Committee had built up a collection of 5,500 works, which were distributed among museums in Britain and the Commonwealth.

The majority of works and the records of the War Artists Advisory are held at the Imperial War Museum http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/art.htm

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