British official war artists

This began to change after artists who had served on the Western Front, such as Paul Nash and C. R. W. Nevinson exhibited paintings based on their experiences in France.

[5] The public acclaim that Eric Kennington received when his painting The Kensingtons at Laventie was first exhibited in London in April 1916 prompted Charles Masterman, head of the British War Propaganda Bureau, acting on the advice of William Rothenstein, to appoint Muirhead Bone as Britain's first official war artist in May 1916.

[7] Rather than focus on short-term propaganda, the main aim of the BMWC was to create a lasting memorial to the war in the form of a national Hall of Remembrance.

To this end younger artists, including Stanley Spencer and Wyndham Lewis, were commissioned by the BWMC to produce a series of large artworks, After the War, when the BWMC was wound up, this series of artworks, which included The Menin Road by Paul Nash and Gassed by John Singer Sargent, became part of the Imperial War Museum collection.

Working with the British Government and the Armed Forces, traditionally the Official War Artists' schemes have been overseen by artists (including Muirhead Bone) and art historians (including Kenneth Clark and curators from the Imperial War Museums).

Away from Kenneth Clark's purview (and to his annoyance), this enabled the RAF freedom to choose artists and subjects they felt celebrated their achievements and priorities.

Cuthbert Orde and William Rothenstein, among others, were commissioned under this scheme to produce portraits – a genre Kenneth Clark did not much rate as a strength in British painting at that time (although with the WAAC he had commissioned Eric Kennington to produce portrait pastels for the Air Ministry as Official War Artist).