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from the archives of The Illustrated London News
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1914
Franz Ferdinand assassinated
Europe declares war
Recruitment begins
Battle of Mons
Battle of the Marne
Battle of the Aisne
East Coast bombed
1915
Edith Cavell executed
Poison gas introduced
Gallipoli Campaign begins
RMS Lusitania sunk
Munitions Ministry created
1916
Verdun Offensive begins
Battle of Jutland
Somme Offensive begins
1917
USA enters the war
W.A.A.C. established
Battle of Passchendaele
1918
Rationing introduced
Russian Armistice signed
Operation Michael begins
Hundred Days Offensive
Spanish Flu peaks
Armistice signed
1919
Peace Treaty signed at Versailles
Cenotaph unveiled
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War ArtistsAAlfred LeeteAmedee ForestierAnnie FishArthur WattsBBert ThomasBruce BairnsfatherEEdmund BlampiedEdward Tennyson ReedFFortunino MataniaFrank ReynoldsFrederic VilliersGG. H. DavisGeorge BelcherGeorge StuddyHH. M. BatemanHarold C. EarnshawHarry L. OakleyHelen McKiePPercival AndersonPhilip DaddRRaphael KirchnerReginald HigginsRichard Caton WoodvilleSSamuel BeggSteven SpurrierWWill OwenWilliam Heath Robinson
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War Artists
War Artists
Richard Caton Woodville
Frederic Villiers
Amadee Forestier
Fortunino Matania
Frank Reynolds
Frederic Villiers
G. H. Davis
Richard Caton Woodville
Samuel Begg
Steven Spurrier
Fortunino Matania
G. H. Davis
Philip Dadd
Annie Fish
Arthur Watts
Edmund Blampied
George Studdy
Harold C. Earnshaw
Percival Anderson
Reginald Higgins
William Heath Robinson
Bert Thomas
Bruce Bairnsfather
Harry L. Oakley
Edmund Blampied
Harold C. Earnshaw
Helen McKie
Reginald Higgins
Will Owen
Bert Thomas
Edmund Blampied
H.M. Bateman
Raphael Kirchner
Will Owen
William Heath Robinson
Harry L. Oakley
Harold C. Earnshaw
William Heath Robinson
Alfred Leete
Bert Thomas
Fortunino Matania
Frederic Villiers
Harold C. Earnshaw
Helen McKie
Steven Spurrier
Artists from the First World War
When Herbert Ingram started the Illustrated London News in 1842, he secured the services of the artist Sir John Gilbert, renowned for his ability to work swiftly and accurately. During the Great War, these attributes, together with a certain amount of tenacity and opportunism, remained key for anyone working as a ‘special artist’ at one of the weekly illustrated papers.
The ILN, The Sphere and The Graphic all employed ‘specials’ whose role was to draw the news, travelling to the seat of war when possible and using their observations, together with those of eyewitnesses, to provide illustrations for the magazine, though methods for achieving this varied. The ILN’s correspondent Frederic Villiers, in his sixties by that time, would send sketches back to the London office where a staff artist, often Frederic de Haenen would interpret them and produce a completed drawing.
De Haenen was just one of a team of artists working in the ILN’s studios to ensure pictures were prepared in time for the presses. Fortunino Matania, special artist for The Sphere was dedicated to ensuring an illustration that was as authentic as possible. He visited the Front on several occasions but interviewed wounded soldiers as well as military and medical figures in order to ensure the utmost accuracy.
Illustration was still, in many ways, superior to photography. Photographs taken in the heat of battle were rare, and in comparison to illustrations offered very little detail or clarity.
Though firmly committed to recording events as accurately and truthfully as possible, ‘special artists’ were also able to move figures and emphasise important elements of a picture in order to give a far more satisfying composition.
Elsewhere, illustrations accompanied theatrical reviews, fashion columns or might veer towards the sentimental and patriotic for special Christmas numbers. Unsurprisingly, actions scenes from the fighting fronts tend, in the main, to be biased towards Allied efforts. As well as recording events, illustrators also commented on the war through cartoons and humorous drawings.
Some of the 20th century’s finest cartoonists contributed to one or more of the ILN titles, among them H. M. Bateman, William Heath Robinson, George Studdy, Alfred Leete and Lawson Wood. Cartoons mocked the enemy, empathised with Tommies in the trenches and made light of the difficulties of living in wartime Britain.
They also boosted morale such as in the case of Bruce Bairnsfather’s ‘Fragments’ in The Bystander or the pin-ups of Raphael Kirchner published in The Sketch. As an insight into the views and preoccupations of the wartime population, the cartoons in the ILN archive are a remarkable and fascinating body of work.
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