At the outbreak of war, Charles Masterman, head of the British War Propaganda Bureau, acting on the advice of artist William Rothenstein, appointed Bone as Britain’s first official war artist. He was sent to the front in August 1916 at the height of the Somme Offensive and toured the Southern battlefields working rapidly in various media – pencil, pen, charcoal and chalk – sending back over 150 finished drawings by October. Country Life published several catalogues of his striking drawings, recording events on the Western Front.
The cover of The Western Front: Drawings by Muirhead Bone.
Click the cover to download the full volume of drawings.
ARCHIVE ARTICLE
READ: Country Life’s review of The Western Front, originally published December 16, 1916.
RETURN TO THE WORLD WAR I HOMEPAGE