An Artilleryman’s Kitchen in the Carso, 1917

Wilfrid Gabriel De Glehn NEAC. RP. RA. (1870–1951).

An Artilleryman’s Kitchen in the Carso, 1917.

Watercolour.

42 x 52 cms 161⁄2 x 201⁄2 ins.

signed and dated lower right in pencil W.G. de Glehn / 7 July 1917.

Provenance: The Artist’s Studio Estate; Atelier number 593.

In late 1916, Wilfrid was seconded from the Royal Garrison Artillery to the Italian Fronts at Isonzo and Carso. His job there was to monitor the Austrians' positions, marking their gun emplacements on maps and panoramas, which he made on the spot, several examples of which are not in the Imperial War Museum.

He painted this watercolour on 7 July 1917. Three months later he would be caught up in the bloody Italian retreat from Caporetto, which Ernest Hemingway vividly described in A Farewell to Arms. Wilfrid jettisoned all his kit (painting included) and devoted himself instead to mustering the remaining able-bodied men securing safe passage for the wounded. However, he managed to rescue a few of his drawings by concealing them under the floorboards of one of the lorries. This watercolour might be related to Italian Gunners at Dinner on the Carso Front, a painting he exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1919.

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance