International studio (60.1916/1917)

British Artists in the War Zone

screens on one side to protect it from shelling is a
good example of this. A very different subject is
a large charcoal sketch of one of the new and
famous “ tanks,” which rears its curious and clumsy
bulk against the earth. This is one of the most
impressive drawings he has done in the course of
his sojourn as yet in France. Of course an artist
like Mr. Bone, who has always been interested in
architectural subjects, found many motives in the
ruined towns and villages which he has naturally
treated with keen interest and sympathy.
Among the surprises to the artist’s admirers will
be the number of figure subjects he has success-
fully carried out. They consist of individual
portraits, an officers’ mess, hospital scenes, both
on the shore and on ships: scenes that are
full of pathos and also have true artistic qualities.
All these drawings, destined to become the property
of the British Nation, will surely rank as one of
the finest pictorial records of the greatest of
wars. Some of these drawings will be seen at
Messrs. Colnaghi and Obach’s Galleries.
Mr. James McBey has not had the same good
fortune and perfect liberty as Mr. Muirhead Bone
possesses to draw where he pleases, and though

at present not exactly at the Front is sufficiently
near the War zone to be affected by its incidents
and influences. Early last year he volunteered
for service in France and was accepted, but was
found not fitted for active warfare, and his duties
were consequently destined to be more civilian in
character than those of an actual fighter. Stationed
first at Boulogne, his work afterwards required his
presence at Rouen and other French cities. All
his free moments have been given up to sketching,
and the result in the shape of some of the etchings
here reproduced shows that this had an effect
on his art which has been for the best. It seems
to have deepened and broadened it, to have made
it more individual, and certainly more ambitious
in character, as can be seen in the large plate of
Rouen. An extensive view of Boulogne is another
essay of the same kind.
The subjects of these etchings by Mr. McBey
are very different from those of Mr. Bone’s drawings.
They give the peaceful aspect of a country that is
engaged in a life and death struggle for existence
with the actual fighting going on not so far away.
There is one exception in the new works of Mr.
McBey, that hints of the presence of war so near


“the seine at rouen”
184

(Messrs. Colnaghi & Obach)

ETCHING BY JAMES MCBEY