
Not on display
- Artist
- Eric Kennington 1888–1960
- Medium
- Pastel on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 629 × 470 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1925
- Reference
- N04075
Display caption
Gallery label, July 2008
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Catalogue entry
N04075 RAIDER WITH A COSH 1917
Inscr. ‘Passed by Censor A N Lee, Major 19/1/18’ b.r.
Pastel on brown paper, 24 3/4×18 1/2 (63×47).
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1925.
Coll: Purchased by the C.A.S. at the Leicester Galleries 1918.
Exh: Leicester Galleries, June–July 1918 (91); C.A.S., Advanced Art, Derby, April–June 1920 (79); C.A.S., Paintings and Drawings, Grosvenor House, June–July 1923 (72).
Repr: C. Dodgson and C. E. Montague, British Artists at the Front. IV. Eric Kennington, 1918, pl.3 (in colour); Tate Gallery Illustrations, 1928, pl.186.
The artist wrote (9 April 1958): ‘A solitary silent raider drawn after his night's work in the enemy trench, France 1917.’ The following note appeared in the Leicester Galleries catalogue: ‘A cosh is a kind of club, made fast to the wrist with a thong so as to hang when not in use, and leave the hand free. The man has no cap, shoulder title badge or tunic buttons, because if he were killed in the enemy's trench these might tell the enemy things which otherwise the enemy could only learn by success - probably an expensive success, if procurable at all - in a raid of his own. The raider's bayonet is masked and his face and hands are daubed with mud of the same colour as the muddy ground to be traversed in the raid.’
Kennington went out to France in August 1917 and spent seven months drawing soldiers under the auspices of the Ministry of Information.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I
Explore
- history(5,776)
-
- military: World War I(670)
-
- Western Front(140)
- recreational activities(2,836)
-
- smoking(280)
- clothing and personal items(5,879)
- actions: postures and motions(9,111)
-
- lying down(392)
- man(10,453)
- individuals: male(1,841)
You might like
-
Eric Kennington Bayonet Practice
1917 -
Eric Kennington A Bantam Hercules
1917 -
Eric Kennington Sleeping Soldier
exhibited 1918 -
Eric Kennington Muttar il Hamoud min Beni Hassan
1920 -
Phil May Lord Rosslyn
date not known -
Eric Kennington Earth Child
c.1936–7 -
Eric Kennington Head of T.E. Lawrence
1926 -
Eric Kennington Sergeant H.D. Parker, R.A.F.
1941 -
Eric Kennington Making Soldiers: Bayonet Practice
c.1917 -
Eric Kennington Making Soldiers: The Gas Mask
c.1917 -
Eric Kennington Making Soldiers: Ready for Service
c.1917 -
Eric Kennington Making Soldiers: In the Trenches
c.1917 -
Eric Kennington Making Soldiers: Over the Top
c.1917 -
Eric Kennington Making Soldiers: Bringing In Prisoners
c.1917 -
John Singer Sargent Portrait of Robert Mathias
c.1913