Military History

War Art

Canadian Wartime Propaganda

Propaganda is the organized dissemination of information to influence thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and actions. The posters and photographs on this site demonstrate how words and images were used in Canada in the service of war between 1914 and 1945.

Art and War

Australia, Britain, and Canada in the Second World War
The experiences of Australia, Canada and Britain during the Second World War were shared ones. These countries were, after all, allies fighting a common enemy; they were also nations profoundly and historically linked politically, economically and socially; and, on notable occasions, they were involved in joint military operations. However, the common ground of Art and War - Australia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War is the impact the war had on individual lives: the men and women that feature in these works are shown waiting, preparing, fighting, suffering, celebrating.

Canvas of War

Masterpieces from the Canadian War Museum
Major artists recorded the important contribution made by Canadians in both world wars. Like the soldiers they depicted, artists saw comrades and brothers die. They marched over corpses, suffered through deafening bombardments and endured inhumane conditions. The paintings you see in this exhibition are their legacy, a first-hand account of "how it was."

Military Munnings

Alfred John Munnings(1878-1959) achieved renown as one of England's finest painters of horses. During the First World War his engagement by Lord Beaverbrook's Canadian War Memorials Fund led to a series of prestigious post-war commissions.

Second World War: Canada's War Artists Perspective

From the beginning, Canadian painters who participated in the Canadian War Records lived and worked closely with the armed forces, spending a great deal of time close to the front lines. Wherever they found themselves, they were expected to produce accurate images of fighting men, machinery, and the landscape of war. This they did by sketching in the field and later developing the sketches in watercolour or pastel. Only when they returned to their headquarters in London, or, after the war, to Canada, did they compose their studio works - oil on canvas.