Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience, 1914-1945

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Canvas of War is a beautiful, deeply moving depiction of the horrors
and, in some strange sense, splendors of war. We view heroism and
camaraderie, bravery, endurance, and ingenuity.

Despite Canada’s self-image as a peaceful nation, the country’s
history is built around battles. During the two world wars, Canada
commissioned some of its finest artists to portray and record the
experience of thousands of young men and women. The artists included
A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Mabel May, Alfred Munnings, and George
Clausen in World War I; Alex Colville, Charles Comfort, Molly Lamb
Bobak, and Jack Shadbolt in World War II.

There are 110 paintings in full color, nine in black and white, and
three maps. Some of my favorites include Jack Shadbolt’s Incoming and
Outgoing Guards (a scene of Veteran Guards soldiers patrolling lanes
between barracks) and Rowley Murphy’s Seamen of Jetty Being Instructed
on Bends and Hitches. The variety and the insight caught in these and
other scenes are impressive. Of course there are scenes of horror, like
Richard Jack’s The Second Battle of Ypres and Fred Varley’s German
Prisoners, a no-man’s land of mud and corpses. The paintings, however,
bespeak much of the best of the human spirit under fire.

Dean Oliver is a senior historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
Laura Brandon, who has been Curator of War Art at the same museum,
lectures and publishes extensively on art history. Canvas of War reveals
Canada’s evolution in political maturity as well as in art. It belongs
in every library.