SOLD
Alexander MacPherson:
War Weapons Week, (George Square), Glasgow, Nov. 1940
Framed (ref: 5349)
Signed, dated and inscribed with title
Watercolour
14 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (37 x 52 cm.)
Tags: Alexander MacPherson watercolour Metropolitan war World War II Paintings by British Artists
Provenance: Sotheby's London, 2008
Exhibited: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 70.
Literature: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 70, page 108-109.
War Weapons Week took place in several cities at the beginning of the war as a way of raising funds and boosting moral. In Glasgow concerts and Parades took place daily as the city sought to raise ten million in loans for the war effort. An article in the Glasgow Herald dated 23rd November 1940 (Military Parades and Exhibition of Arms and Equipment) recorded that: The plan for the outdoor display of war weapons in George Square during the week offers the opportunity to the public of inspecting a large British tank and a German Messerschmitt plane. Other exhibits to be shown in the Square include a gun tractor and trailer and a Bren gun carrier. In another article in the same edition (Parade to Quicken Lending:Services Show Needs) 'Many thousands of citizens saw the fighting equipment for which their money is so urgently needed. Bren-gun carriers and other weapons of war were in the parade which passed along some of the principal thoroughfares on the way to the City Chambers. In from of the Cenotaph the Lord Provost....took the salute as units of the fighting and civil services swung past' One of the main attractions was 'the yellow-nosed Messerschmitt fighter in George Square' (seen in the middle ground, fair left of this watercolour).
