A display from the collection to mark the 50th Anniversary of the outbreak of war in September 1939
This display is largely drawn from pictures given to the Tate Gallery after the Second World War through the organisation known as the War Artists' Advisory Committee. This committee, which ran from 1939 to 1945, organized the employment of artists through the war years. It considered over 2,000 artists, and over 300 were engaged by the committee in some way. Some artists were salaried for renewable periods of six months, and from them the committee took their entire output. These artists were generally responsible to a branch of the services and travelled with the division to which they were attached. Others were given commissions to record specific subjects, while others submitted their works to the committee in the hope of a purchase. By the end of 1945 nearly 6,000 works had been acquired, and these were then distributed to museums and galleries over the country. The Tate received a particularly large number.
