DOI issue:
No. 299 (February 1918)
DOI article:Salaman, Malcolm C.: Drawings by James McBey, official artist in Palestine
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21356#0021
Drawings by James McBey, Official Artist in Palestine
"MONITORS BOMBARDING GAZA." FROM A DRAWING BY JAMES McBEY, OFFICIAL ARTIST IN EGYPT AND PALESTINE
included in the new serial publication which is In the Dressing-Station ; A Hospital Ward ;
about to appear under the authority of the War Convalescents, from the Mahemdia Hospital,
Office. " I shan't forget soon my first view of watching the fishing in the Bay of Tina—a
Gaza," McBey wrote to me. " I topped a ridge happy, sunny drawing—one of our illustrations,
unexpectedly, and before me, in almost a semi- But perhaps the masterpiece of this first group
circle, was the world's most historic battle- of McBey's drawings is Bacteria—reproduced
field, and Gaza, quiet and beautiful, at the other here in monochrome. The doctor—a London
end. The landscape is so vast, and the air so specialist-—sits before his microscope in the
clear, that troops resemble colonies of ants on laboratory of a field-hospital, and, as he holds
sand-dunes, most difficult to sketch, as there up to the light with steady hand a test-tube,
is nothing large enough to cast a shadow, and we see him actually seeing what science is
to get close to the nearest of them may mean revealing to him, while his assistant, standing
a day's journey. There are, of course, no by, follows his questioning gaze with the eager
prescribed roads. One wanders where one will, curiosity of the learner. The essential men-
but if one takes a short cut one finds suddenly tality of this tense moment of research is ex-
a deep ravine in the path." Monitors bom- pressed with vital draughtsmanship and tri-
barding Gaza, drawn a few days after writing umphant art.
the above, is an interesting impression of an It is impossible, within a limited space, to
important addition to the historic records of give any adequate idea of the variety of subject
this famous battlefield of the ages. that has already engaged our artist's pen. In
Some of the landscapes—Katia Gannit, Beer- the office of the Inland Water Transport he
sheba, A Hillside in Sinai, Kantara, Tel-el- shows us how the officers in charge, with a
Jemmi, The Wadi Ghuzzi—are of extraordinary model of the Suez Canal before them indicating
interest, but among the most beautiful draw- the exact position at the moment of every craft,
ings are those invested with the pathetic appeal can control the traffic of transport, dhow, daha-
of the sick and wounded : By the Ouse Again— beeyah, lighter, and tug. In several drawings
a boy from Bedford, doubtless, on a stretcher, we see the significant activities of the desert
with yearning eyes seeing visions of home ; railway with its wonders of transport, the focal
15
"MONITORS BOMBARDING GAZA." FROM A DRAWING BY JAMES McBEY, OFFICIAL ARTIST IN EGYPT AND PALESTINE
included in the new serial publication which is In the Dressing-Station ; A Hospital Ward ;
about to appear under the authority of the War Convalescents, from the Mahemdia Hospital,
Office. " I shan't forget soon my first view of watching the fishing in the Bay of Tina—a
Gaza," McBey wrote to me. " I topped a ridge happy, sunny drawing—one of our illustrations,
unexpectedly, and before me, in almost a semi- But perhaps the masterpiece of this first group
circle, was the world's most historic battle- of McBey's drawings is Bacteria—reproduced
field, and Gaza, quiet and beautiful, at the other here in monochrome. The doctor—a London
end. The landscape is so vast, and the air so specialist-—sits before his microscope in the
clear, that troops resemble colonies of ants on laboratory of a field-hospital, and, as he holds
sand-dunes, most difficult to sketch, as there up to the light with steady hand a test-tube,
is nothing large enough to cast a shadow, and we see him actually seeing what science is
to get close to the nearest of them may mean revealing to him, while his assistant, standing
a day's journey. There are, of course, no by, follows his questioning gaze with the eager
prescribed roads. One wanders where one will, curiosity of the learner. The essential men-
but if one takes a short cut one finds suddenly tality of this tense moment of research is ex-
a deep ravine in the path." Monitors bom- pressed with vital draughtsmanship and tri-
barding Gaza, drawn a few days after writing umphant art.
the above, is an interesting impression of an It is impossible, within a limited space, to
important addition to the historic records of give any adequate idea of the variety of subject
this famous battlefield of the ages. that has already engaged our artist's pen. In
Some of the landscapes—Katia Gannit, Beer- the office of the Inland Water Transport he
sheba, A Hillside in Sinai, Kantara, Tel-el- shows us how the officers in charge, with a
Jemmi, The Wadi Ghuzzi—are of extraordinary model of the Suez Canal before them indicating
interest, but among the most beautiful draw- the exact position at the moment of every craft,
ings are those invested with the pathetic appeal can control the traffic of transport, dhow, daha-
of the sick and wounded : By the Ouse Again— beeyah, lighter, and tug. In several drawings
a boy from Bedford, doubtless, on a stretcher, we see the significant activities of the desert
with yearning eyes seeing visions of home ; railway with its wonders of transport, the focal
15