TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Accurate to the point of mania'
T2 - Eyewitness testimony and memory making in Australia's official paintings of the first world war
AU - Hutchison, Margaret
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Routledge. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/1/2
Y1 - 2015/1/2
N2 - The collection of official war art housed in the Australian War Memorial has played an important role in shaping a memory of the First World War for almost a century. This article explores the importance of eyewitness testimony in the production of war paintings for the Memorial's collection during the interwar years. Focusing on the repainting of official artist Harold Septimus Power's canvas Saving the Guns of Robecq, it explores the reasons why - in the inevitably contested construction of memory - Charles Bean and John Treloar privileged veterans ' memories over artists' interpretations of the conflict. It argues that in the process of memory making aesthetics mattered less than portraying the war in a way acceptable to the men who had experienced it.
AB - The collection of official war art housed in the Australian War Memorial has played an important role in shaping a memory of the First World War for almost a century. This article explores the importance of eyewitness testimony in the production of war paintings for the Memorial's collection during the interwar years. Focusing on the repainting of official artist Harold Septimus Power's canvas Saving the Guns of Robecq, it explores the reasons why - in the inevitably contested construction of memory - Charles Bean and John Treloar privileged veterans ' memories over artists' interpretations of the conflict. It argues that in the process of memory making aesthetics mattered less than portraying the war in a way acceptable to the men who had experienced it.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923884225&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1031461X.2014.996574
DO - 10.1080/1031461X.2014.996574
M3 - Article
SN - 1031-461X
VL - 46
SP - 27
EP - 44
JO - Australian Historical Studies
JF - Australian Historical Studies
IS - 1
ER -