Acetylene Welder; The Great War: Britain's Efforts and Ideals: Building Aircraft
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
Great Britain, UK (printed and published)
- Date:
1917 (printed and published)
- Artist/Maker:
Nevinson, Christopher Richard Wynne, born 1889 - died 1946 (artist)
Ministry of Information (commissioned by) - Materials and Techniques:
Lihtograph, with scratched highlights
- Credit Line:
Given by the Imperial War Museum
- Museum number:
CIRC.258-1919
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F, case EDUC, shelf 6
C. R. W. Nevinson was an official war artist when he made this print in 1917. He shows the women intent on their war work. They look like identical robots. They have tied up their hair to keep it out of the machinery and wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sparks. A leaflet issued by the Ministry of Labour said: 'The average woman takes to welding as readily as she takes to knitting once she has overcome any initial nervousness due to sparks'.
Nevinson painted landscapes and urban and industrial subjects. He was also an accomplished printmaker. Around 1912 and 1913 he studied in Paris and absorbed the influences of the new developments in European art, especially Cubism and Futurism. He produced this series of prints as one of the conditions for his appointment as an official war artist. He also made paintings of several of the subjects he depicted in this series.
