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Canadian War Museum
1 Vimy Place
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0M8
Tel. (819) 776-8600
toll-free 1-800-555-5621
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Military History
War Art
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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