Edward Ardizzone

Scout Cars of a Regiment of Hussars Liberating a Stalag

1945

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Not on display

Artist: Edward Ardizzone 1900–1979
Medium: Watercolour and ink on paper
Dimensions: Support: 578 × 781 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
Reference: N05674

Catalogue entry

N05674 SCOUT CARS OF A REGIMENT OF HUSSARS LIBERATING A STALAG 1945

Inscr. on reverse, ‘Scout cars of a Regiment of Hussars liberating a Stalag’.
Watercolour, pen and ink, 22 3/4×30 3/4 (58×78).
Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
Exh: National War Pictures, National Gallery, 1945, and R.A., October–November 1945 (797).

This records the liberation by the scout cars of the 8th Regiment of Hussars of a prison camp, Stalag 257, on 16 April 1945. The artist recalled (letter of 7 October 1959) that ‘Stalag 257 was enormous and consisted of several encampments. The part shown in the picture was one which contained men who had been in prison for a very long time. What was particularly pathetic about the scene was that, though the gates were thrown open, so many of the prisoners still clung to the wire as if unable to leave.’

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I