painting, Torpedoed Ship
Report a Mistake- Object Number 20020123-003
- Event --
- Affiliation --
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer Nichols, Lieutenant Jack
- Date Made 1995/11/
- Place of Use Continent - North America, Country - Canada
- Category Communication artifacts
- Sub-category Art
- Department Art and Memorials
- Museum CWM
- Earliest 1995/11/01
- Latest 1995/11/30
- Medium mixed media
- Support paper
- Materials Not applicable
- Measurements Height 13.1 cm, Width 17.2 cm
- Caption Jack Nichols (1921 - 2009)
- Additional Information Born in 1921 in Montreal, Jack Nichols was largely self-taught as an artist. In the fall of 1942 he served as a deckhand on a Great Lakes freighter. His combination of skills led to a 1943 commission from the National Gallery of Canada to depict the activities of the Canadian Merchant Navy. In February 1944 he was enrolled as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, and was appointed an official Canadian war artist in April 1944 with the rank of lieutenant. Nichols was present at the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944, later sketched on a number of warships, and was on board HMCS Iroquois during the attempted evacuation of Brest by the Germans in August 1944. (Men on H.M.C.S. Iroquois at Action Stations) Nichols was released from the navy in October 1946. Nichols's drawings form the bulk of his official war art. Only eight compositions were worked up in oil and they are unique within the Canadian War Records Collection because of their emphasis on the human experience in war time.