painting, Infantry, near Nijmegen, Holland

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Object Number 19710261-2079
Event 1939-1945 Second World War
Affiliation --
Artist / Maker / Manufacturer Colville, Captain Alex
Date Made 1946

Place of Use Continent - North America, Country - Canada
Category Communication artifacts
Sub-category Art
Department Art and Memorials
Museum CWM
Earliest 1946/01/01
Latest 1946/12/31
Inscription (recto) ALEX COLVILLE 1946; (verso): "INFANTRY" CAPT. D.A. COLVILLE; JANUARY, 1945; NEAR NIJMEGEN, HOLLAND; 3CDN INF DIV; SER. NO. - 4107; NEG. NO. - WA 1228; 4107, PROPRIETE; MUSEE DE GUERRE DU CANADA; 330, PROMENADE SUSSEX; OTTAWA, ONT. K1A OM8, PROPERTY OF; THE CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM; 330 SUSSEX DRIVE; OTTAWA, ONTARIO K1A 0M8, WHITE LEAD 20 DEC 45
Medium oil
Support canvas
Materials Not applicable
Branch Infantry Branch
Service Component Canadian Army
Unit 3rd Canadian Infantry
Measurements Height 101.6 cm, Width 121.9 cm

Caption Alex Colville (1920 - 2013)
Additional Information Internationally recognized as one of Canada's leading artists, Alex Colville spent most of his youth in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and later attended nearby Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. After graduation he joined the Canadian Army and was appointed a war artist. Upon arriving in London, Colville was stationed with a supply unit in Yorkshire. He subsequently travelled to the Mediterranean, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. In 1946 he returned to Mount Allison as a teacher. Following his retirement in 1963, Colville devoted all of his time to painting. He moved to Wolfville in 1973 and from 1981 to 1991 served as Chancellor of Acadia University.
Caption Infantry, near Nijmegen, Holland, 1946; Infantry, 1945; Hand Study, 1945
Additional Information The practice of sketching was common to all the war artists, but the work of Alex Colville is unique in that extensive preliminary work for so many of his paintings has survived. Sometimes the finished painting is extremely close to the original drawing, whereas at other times the sketches form the basis for only a small detail in a picture. Taken together, however, Colville's drawings provide a special opportunity to understand the creative process behind a painting of war. Colville noted in his diary: "Painting in cold weather presents several problems. On the average winter day I find it impossible to work outside for more than an hour at a time as after that my hands are numb. Watercolours will not dry outdoors, and sometimes even freezes [sic] on the paper or in the pans. One solution to these problems is to drive the jeep to a selected point of view and paint from inside the vehicle, warming the interior with an oil heater. Another, in places where the jeep cannot be taken, is to paint outdoors, but to go into a dugout or house at intervals to dry washes before a stove. A third solution is to make quick drawings on the spot and paint large works in billets from these sketches. At present I find this last method most satisfactory." There are seventeen sketches in the Canadian War Museum associated with Infantry, near Nijmegen, Holland, the moving canvas depicting soldiers of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division trudging along a Dutch polder. The preliminary drawings show that Colville worked on uniform details and on specific parts of the soldiers' stances and anatomy. He worked with two concepts for the finished painting, however. One features the figures moving towards the viewer, and the other, away. The only completed watercolour is of the latter, which suggests that the final composition was not the one the artist initially chose to develop. Colville himself was brief in a diary description of how the composition came into being: "On 1 February [1945] I envisaged my first big canvas - the subject being infantry marching in single file along a road. That morning I made numerous sketches of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles marching, then a study of a desolate road. The following day ... I did a pen and wash drawing, Infantry, from the previous day's sketches.