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Rudolf Sauter:
Paths in the moonlight – Bombers going out over the Channel, 1944
Framed (ref: 7903)
Signed, original manuscript label to verso giving title and artist’s address, Press & Censorship Bureau inkstamp dated 16 October 1944,
Watercolour on paper
11 ½ x 15 ¾ in. (29 x 40 cm)
Tags: Rudolf Sauter ink watercolour seascapes and skyscapes war World War II Paintings by British Artists Rudolf Sauter (1895-1977)
Exhibited: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 53.
Literature: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 53, page 92.
During World War II, Rudolf Sauter was an Army Welfare Officer under South Eastern Command. Although he was never an official war artist the events he witnessed informed his work.
This composition shows medium bombers on their way to bomb targets in German-occupied France. Bomber Command turned its
attention to French transport targets – railway marshalling yards, bridges, rail tunnels etc – from about March 1944. This was done primarily
to isolate northern France from the rest of the transport system in order to hamper German troop movements countering the D-Day
landings. To conceal the actual point of invasion, transport interdiction had to be widespread, from Caen to the Belgian border and from
the northern Loire northwards towards Brest.
