poliphilo: (bah)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2014-08-04 02:07 pm
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German Wire, Thiepval

German Wire, Thiepval Art.IWMART3006.jpgGerman Wire, Thiepval by William Orpen
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[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2014-08-04 03:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Incredibly powerful when you consider Orpen was best known as a society portraitist!

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-08-04 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
His war art is terrific. As are the paintings he was commissioned to do of the Versailles Peace Conference. He thought the delegates were attitudinising twerps- and it shows in the finished work- where they're dwarfed by the architecture he sets them against.

I don't believe he gets his due at all. Are his paintings of the front line inferior to Paul Nash's? I don't think so.

[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2014-08-04 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Nevinson's the one that really reaches in and throws my switches, but you know me and futurism!

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-08-04 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I like Nevinson too.

The Great War provided a number of British artists with their finest hour.

[identity profile] puddleshark.livejournal.com 2014-08-04 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Just the hats and a damn great hole... The more you look at it, the more you see all the things Orpen didn't include.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-08-04 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Some of his war paintings show corpses. On the whole I think we're better off not seeing them and having to use our imagination.

[identity profile] veronica-milvus.livejournal.com 2014-08-05 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
Chilly and chilling pic. Thank you.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-08-05 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
Orpen's worth looking at. There's a huge cache of his work in the collection of the Imperial War Museum- and on-line.
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