Albert Richards

Catalogue entry

N05726 THE LANDING: H HOUR MINUS 6. IN THE DISTANCE GLOW OF THE LANCASTERS BOMBING BATTERY TO BE ATTACKED 1944

Inscr. ‘Albert Richards - H— 6’ b.r.c. and ‘16·6·44’ b.r.
Watercolour, 21 1/4×29 (53·5×73·5).
Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
Exh: National War Pictures, National Gallery, 1945, and R.A., October–November 1945 (824).

The date, 16 June 1944, inscribed on the drawing suggests that the watercolour was worked up from memory, since D-Day, the invasion of Normandy by the Allies, took place on 6 June 1944 when the artist was engaged in fighting. The drawing shows the preliminary softening up of enemy positions by aerial bombardment six hours before the landing of sea-borne troop sand the beginning of the full attack.

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

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