War Artists' Advisory Committee

The War Artists' Advisory Committee, (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, with the aim of compiling a comprehensive artistic and documentary of the history of Britain throughout the war. When the committee was dissolved in December 1945 its collection consisted of 5,570 works of art produced by over four hundred artists. This collection was then distributed to museums and institutions in Britain and around the world, with over half of the collection, some 3,000 works, going to the Imperial War Museum.

The stated aim of the WAAC, and the War Artists' Advisory Scheme, which it ran, was:

to draw up a list of artists qualified to record the war at home and abroad. In co-operation with the Services Departments, and other Government Departments...to advise on the selection of artists on this list for war purposes and on the arrangements for their employment

Sir Kenneth Clark, then Director of the National Gallery, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Committee. The advent of World War II saw many artists cease working and lose their incomes as commercial galleries closed, private commissions ceased and the art schools reduced their teaching or closed altogether. This led Clarke to fear that there would not be a contemporary artistic, visual record of the war. His lobbying for Government support for artists during the conflict directly led to the formation of WAAC. Whilst the primary purpose of the Committee was propaganda and organising art exhibitions in Britain and America to raise morale and promote Britain's image abroad, Clarke later admitted that he also hoped that the scheme might also prevent artists from being killed on front line service.

The WAAC met at the National Gallery once a month, with members drawn from government departments, the forces and London art schools. The original members of the Committee were,

Later in the war representatives from the ministries of Supply, Production and War Transport joined the Committee. Although some of the original members were moved to other duties as the war developed, Clark, Bone, Dickey and Russell remained active members throughout the conflict.

The Committee operated by employing artists on full-time contracts, offering short-term commissions to artists on individual subjects and by purchasing finished works offered to it. In total WAAC acquired artworks from some four hundred artists. It also issued permits allowing artists access to otherwise restricted areas and rationed materials. Wartime rationing restricted good quality paper for printmaking and materials for sculpture so such works were under-represented in the WAAC collection. In June 1941, WAAC established a scheme to obtain artworks by artists from Britain's overseas colonies. Although four artists were sent to record the activities of the British Expeditionary Force in France, at the start of the war the majority of WAAC commissions were for subjects on the British home front, but as the conflict progressed twenty-six men were given overseas commissions. Among these were Edward Ardizzone, Henry Carr, and Edward Bawden who each went to the Middle East, Leslie Cole was sent to Malta, France and South-East Asia, Vivian Pitchforth went to Burma, and Anthony Gross went to the Middle East and Burma before joining the Normandy landings. Two women, Mary Kessell and Laura Knight, were also, towards the end of the war, given overseas commissions. Other artists serving overseas but working without a WAAC commission or contract, submitted work which was then purchased by the Committee. These included Doris Zinkeisen and Stella Schmolle serving with the Red Cross and the Auxiliary Territorial Service respectively. Three artists, Thomas Hennell, Eric Ravilious and Albert Richards, were killed during the Second World War whilst working on WAAC commissions.

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