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Art Sets.

Hope lies beyond the battlefield

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A Together in Art Pocket Exhibition curated by Anne Gérard-Austin

Evelyn Chapman created this series of tempera paintings in the midst of blasted French battlefields in early 1919. They bear witness to the disasters of war and human sufferings, and herald the tragic ‘burden of the century’ to come. Chapman’s accurate yet unexpectedly lyrical renditions of devastation and loss, along with the fragile red poppies – already a symbol of remembrance by then – springing up in ravaged soil, deliver a precious and everlasting message of resilience and regrowth which can fortify our hope in humanity.

Anne Gérard-Austin is assistant curator of international art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

This gelatin silver photograph from the Art Gallery of NSW's National Art Archive, by an unknown photographer, shows Evelyn Chapman, the first Australian female artist to visit the battlefields, painting the ruins of the church at Villers-Bretonneux, France, c1919.

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This gelatin silver photograph from the Art Gallery of NSW's National Art Archive, by an unknown photographer, shows Evelyn Chapman, the first Australian female artist to visit the battlefields, painting the ruins of the church at Villers-Bretonneux, France, c1919.