painting, The Conquerors
Report a Mistake- Object Number 19710261-0812
- Event 1914-1919 First World War
- Affiliation --
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer Kennington, Sir Eric Henri
- Date Made 1920
- Category Communication artifacts
- Sub-category Art
- Department Art and Memorials
- Museum CWM
- Earliest 1920/01/01
- Latest 1920/12/31
- Inscription On painting, recto, lower right in light brown paint: ERIC. H. KENNINGTON 20; verso on excess tacking margins, left centre, in black felt pen: ACC. 8968 THE CONQUERORS by KENNINGTON; top in blue crayon: grid marks and numbers: 7, 21; right in graphite: grid marks and numbers: 3, 6; lower right, in black felt pen: Acc. 8968; lower right in red felt pen: ACC 8968; on stretcher, partially observed by excess tacking margin along right edge: in black crayon: The Conquerors
- Medium oil
- Support canvas
- Materials Not applicable
- Service Component Canadian Expeditionary Force
- Unit 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion
- Measurements Height 297.8 cm, Width 242.8 cm
- Caption The Conquerors
- Additional Information The dead and the living walk together through the shattered, symbol-littered landscape of the western front in this painting, which was originally entitled The Victims. As in a late medieval altarpiece, below their feet rests a skeleton, a form of memento mori. Some of the living are clearly dying, their legs metamorphosing into the quagmire through which they march. A future governor general of Canada, Lord Tweedsmuir, had a poor opinion of the British artist's work. "I am very doubtful about Eric Kennington," he wrote, "his whole style of work is utterly remote from and undescriptive of the western front, and is no use for purposes of record. He might just as well paint his pictures at home." Kennington's own assessment of his war art is interesting, and perhaps ironic given the powerful imagery in The Conquerors. "[I] did not attempt to depict any of the horror & tragedy, realizing that it was too vast & that I was not capable..." Nevertheless, he enjoyed being a war artist. "Had a warm reception everywhere artists are welcomed at front. The difficulty is that if an artist remains back he is safe & comfortable & does not really see the war, & if he goes really 'forward' he sees the war, and life is so disturbed and full of apprehensions, dangers and sudden changes that he cannot really apply himself to his work."
- Caption The Conquerors
- Additional Information Both dead and living soldiers march over the remains of their fallen companions. The dead are distinguished by their white faces and dark-rimmed eyes. The Canadian advance in the Hundred Days was a brilliant, but costly, victory.
- Caption The Conquerors
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Additional Information
Kilted Canadians of the 16th Battalion, some depicted as pale ghosts, march through a destroyed battlefield of broken bottles, skeletal remains, and informal graves. Eric Kennington originally titled his work The Victims. After its showing in Canada led to objections about the title from the battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Cy Peck, Kennington renamed it The Conquerors.