£1,875 

Barnett Freedman:
15-inch Gun Turret, HMS Repulse, 1941
_folio (ref: 7952)

Proof lithograph before final legend

30 x 39 9/10 in. (76.3 x 101.3 cm)

Tags: Barnett Freedman lithograph men war work 1.Master Designs World War II Paintings by British Artists

Provenance: The Artist's son

Exhibited: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 19.

Literature: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 19, page 56-57. : Mason, Emma, Barnett Freedman, Designs for Modern Britain, Pallant House Gallery, 2020, p. 34

Original lithographic poster printed for the National Gallery.

Barnett Freedman was one of the first artists to be commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee at the start of WW2. He was posted to France staying on as long as possible before being evacuated. 

He was to return in 1944 to record the setting up of operational harbours in Normandy. In between, his interest was in recording operational methods and he was commissioned to work for the Admiralty, and specifically on HMS Repulse, in July 1941. On 10 December the same year Japanese aircraft attacked and sank the Repulse and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales off the coast of Malaya, with the loss of 840 lives.

15-Inch Gun Turret, HMS 'Repulse, oil on canvas, IWM London