SOLD


Evelyn Dunbar:
Studies for Putting on Anti-Gas Protective Clothing, study D
Framed (ref: 7677)
Pen, ink and wash.  10¾ x 15 in. (27.3 x 38.1 cm)

Tags: Evelyn Dunbar ink war women World War II Paintings by British Artists Evelyn Dunbar at The Watts Gallery

Provenance: The Artist's Family; thence by descent

Exhibited: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 79d.  Literature: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, eds Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 79d, page 120; Evelyn Dunbar: A Life in Painting, Christopher Campbell-Howes, October 2016, pages 248-250. Completed in June 1940, Putting on Anti-Gas Protective Clothing, now in the Imperial War Museum, was the first of Dunbar’s war paintings. Immediately on her appointment the previous April as an official war artist she was posted to Bisham Abbey, Berkshire, where the Women’s Voluntary Service organised training courses, later taken over Civil Defence, to relieve civilian war casualties, particularly by bombing and the expected enemy gas attacks. (In the event, gas was never used.) In July 1940 the National Gallery included this painting in an exhibition of wartime art. It was also included in the Britain at War exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York the following year.

We are grateful to Christopher Campbell-Howes for assistance.