Title
Villers-Bretonneux
1918
Artist
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Details
- Other Titles
- Re-capture of Villers-Bretonneux, 24th and 25th April, 1918
Villers Bretonneux on 25 April 1918 - Place where the work was made
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London
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England
- Date
- 1918
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas, later mounted onto hardboard
- Dimensions
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63.5 x 100.9 cm board; 101.0 x 140.0 cm frame
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0 - Whole, 61.4 x 99.5 cm, SIGHT DIMENSION
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r. corner, black oil "A STREETON/ 1918".
- Credit
- Purchased 1920
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 538
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Arthur Streeton
Works in the collection
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About
The Somme Valley that Arthur Streeton toured in 1918 was still raw with the wounds of major battles. One of the places he visited was the town of Villers-Bretonneux, which on 25 April (Anzac Day) 1918 had been recaptured by Australian soldiers at the cost of over 1200 lives.
In 'Villers-Bretonneux', Streeton portrays an eerily quiet moment on the Western Front. It is a broad vista marked by conflict: the earth rent apart by artillery explosions, rows of trenches scored into the countryside and clouds of smoke billowing across the sky. In the distance, figures can be seen bearing stretchers.
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Places
Where the work was made
London
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
With the Australians on the Somme: Pictures by Lt. Arthur Streeton, Official Artist attached to the Second Division, Alpine Club Gallery, London, 30 Jun 1919–Unknown
Mad through the darkness: Australian artists and the Great War, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Apr 2015–11 Oct 2015
Arthur Streeton: The art of war, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 15 Dec 2017–29 Apr 2018
Streeton, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 07 Nov 2020–14 Feb 2021
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Bibliography
Referenced in 8 publications
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Robert Croll (Editor), Smike to bulldog: letters from Sir Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, Sydney, 1946, 57 (illus.), 98. plate 15
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Ann Galbally, Arthur Streeton, Melbourne, 1971, 110.
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Ann Galbally, Arthur Streeton, Melbourne, 1969, 66, 84. cat.no. 174
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Lionel Lindsay, Streeton memorial exhibition souvenir catalogue, Sydney, 1945. cat.no. 41
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Bertram Stevens, Art in Australia [vol. 1, no. 7], 'Streeton's later work', pg. 10-13, Sydney, 1919, 10, 11 (colour illus.), 12.
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Arthur Streeton, The Arthur Streeton catalogue, Melbourne, 1935, 128. cat.no. 579
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Gerard Vaughan, Anna Gray, Emma Kindred, Mark Whitmore, Anthea Gunn, Emily Wubben and Bridie McGillicudy, Arthur Streeton: the art of war, Canberra, 2017-2018, 47 (colour illus.), 50, 51, 53, 158 (colour illus.), 159, 183. cat.no. 41
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Andrew Yip, Look, 'Faraway, so close', Sydney, Mar 2018-Apr 2018, 52-53 (colour illus.).
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