More Of The Same

[poliphilo]

Lets have some more Carline...

Here we have British planes attacking Turkish boats on the Sea of Galilee in 1919



And this one is called Destruction of an Austrian machine in the gorge of the Brenta Valley. Very pretty- and then one remembers that what is being memorialised is a man's death.  I love how the victim is placed dead centre- and how he's white- and the British places are circling him- like little brown birds mobbing a predator. I think that's an Albatross he's flying- most stylish aircraft of the war- while the British planes are Camels.



I don't suppose we'd call Carline a "great" painter. He was a talented professional who- like many war artists- got given an extraordinary opportunity- and rose to it magnificently.  He came from obscurity, did his bit, returned to obscurity again. Art-historical greatness isn't really the point.  All the same, these are great paintings.  No-one had painted war in the air before. It was a new subject. Carline was- in his own way- as much of a pioneer as any Cubist or Vorticist.

Comments

[sovay]

I love how the victim is placed dead centre- and how he's white- and the British places are circling him- like little brown birds mobbing a predator.

He draws all of his planes as though they are sentient things, the people inside them secondary. They're like Audubon paintings of war machines. I really like them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true. Man becomes machine. Very contemporary.