A World War One Australian propaganda poster by Norman Lindsay.
On the 4th of August, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. As part of the British Empire, Australia – who had already begun war preparations – immediately became involved in the conflict.
Nearly 422 000 Australians – of a population of less than 5 million – served in the military during the First World War. More than half of them were killed or wounded.
From the collection of the Imperial War Museums
The body of British nurse Edith Cavell is depicted here being taken to Westminster Abbey in London for a state funeral on the 15th of May, 1919. The image was created by English artist Henry Rushbury.
Cavell, who had helped Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium during the First World War, was arrested by German authorities and executed by firing squad on the 12th of October, 1915.
Cavell’s killing sparked international outrage, and the incident was used in war propaganda in the years following her death.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Canberrans are so lucky to have the National Gallery of Australia. It’s one of the best galleries you’ll find anywhere, and we have some of the best special exhibitions.
At the moment, that special exhibition is Love & Desire – a collection of many of the world’s most famous Pre-Raphaelite works, visiting Canberra from all over (but mostly from the Tate Britain) for several months. We went to see it on Sunday, (and then we walked along the lake to the National Library for lunch on the terrace – it’s still really warm, considering it is mid-autumn here, as in summer-dress warm).
Something I didn’t learn until yesterday was how much William Morris stuff the gallery here actually owns.
Also, it was great to see some of the most famous Ballet Russes costumes out of storage and on display on the way in (we had the common sense to buy them all up before anybody else in the world realised their value. Now, if you want to see – say – Nijinsky’s most famous costumes, you have to come to Canberra!).
Here are a few of the famous works in the exhibition:
John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott 1888
John Everett Millais Ophelia 1851-52
William Holman Hunt The awakening conscience 1853
(This is supposed to be a Victorian mistress waking up to how she shouldn’t be living in sin!)
Ford Madox Brown The last of England 1864-66
(This is MUCH smaller than I always imagined it!)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ecce ancilla domini! (The Annunciation) 1849-50
(This one is amazing and before its time, as it depicts the Virgin Mary being told she will give birth to Jesus as a terrifying moment.)
This Victorian illustration was created by Englishwoman Kate Greenaway, and is dated the 26th of March, 1891.
Greenaway, who was born in London in 1846, was an internationally successful creator of children’s books and a painter of many watercolours.
The artist died in London in 1901.
The comic opera The Mikado, created by Englishmen Gilbert & Sullivan, premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London on the 14th of March, 1885.
This painting depicts the show being performed in the Ruhleben internment camp west of Berlin in Germany in 1916. British prisoners, interned during the First World War, staged the show from memory.
The painting is by Anglo-Dutch artist Nico Jungmann, who was interned at Ruhleben because he was a naturalised British citizen.
Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the future Queen of the United Kingdom, is depicted in this painting by Henry Nelson O’Neil arriving in England on the 7th of March, 1863.
Alexandra travelled to Gravesend in Kent, England by royal yacht to marry Prince Albert Edward, the future King Edward VII.
The royal couple married three days later, on the 10th.
The Christian Martyrs Of Nagasaki (painted 16th-17th century).
On the 5th of February, 1597, a group of Catholics were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki, Japan.
The victims were four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Indian (all Franciscan missionaries), three Japanese Jesuits, and seventeen Japanese members of the Third Order of St Francis (including children).
The atrocity was carried out on the orders of Hideyoshi Toyotomi.
Generations later it was discovered that Japan had a community of underground “hidden Catholics” who had not been discouraged by the persecution.
The Catholic church of Nagasaki was ground zero when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945 at the end of the Second World War.
