Embarking for the Western Front

'The present picture is the 'artist's version' of a subject painted while he was fulfilling his duties as an Official War Artist in 1917, a busy year in which he travelled to naval bases and airfields throughout England and Scotland. Having secured his vantage point, Lavery frequently executed two versions of the same scene - one of which - as in the present instance - was given to what became the Imperial War Museum. Embarking for the Western Front was possibly painted at Southampton and it is one of the most dramatic pictures in the series in that it shows a cargo ship, hastily requisitioned for military purpose and painted in 'dazzle' camouflage. Other artists may well have been deflected by the dramatic abstract pattern which could easily disrupt the continuity of the painting. Lavery, by contrast, reduces its impact and gives equal weight to the lines of bored soldiers who are filing aboard. This quayside compositional format was used on a number of occasions during Lavery's period as a war artist. The Breaking-up of HMS Illustrious (private collection) for instance, painted on Tyneside in the autumn of 1917, takes a similar view of the ship, and contains a steep diagonal gangway, although in this instance, a few shipyard workers replace the ranks of waiting soldiers. Troops Embarking, Southampton (1918), also retained by Lavery, reverses the composition. Three closely related works are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum (no.s 1270, 1279 and 2616). One of these, is a large commemorative canvas, 108 x 144 in., Troops Embarking from Southampton for the Western Front. This version remained in the artist's studio until the time of his death when it passed to Diana Dickinson, then Mrs. Blackwood, the painter's granddaughter and one of his legatees (see lot 56).'
(Kenneth McConkey, private correspondence, April 2000).