From Fields to Factories: Women’s Work on the Home Front in the First World War
Otter Gallery, University of Chichester, 14 February – 10 May 2014
A major exhibition marking the centenary of the outbreak of World War One opens at the Otter Gallery, University of Chichester, on 14 February.
From Fields to Factories: Women’s Work on the Home Front in the First World War, explores the role of women in the Women’s Land Army and Munitions. The exhibition, which runs until 10 May, features pictures on loan from the Imperial War Museum, the Tate, London, and Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, including important works by Randolph Schwabe, Hilda Carline and her brother Richard.
Also on display are two rarely seen works by Stanley Spencer, from the University of Chichester’s Bishop Otter Collection, sketched in preparation for his celebrated murals at the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere. The murals were Spencer’s response to his experiences as a hospital orderly and as a soldier during the First World War – Mules shows a resurrected soldier lying among mules and can be seen alongside Spencer’s pencil sketch for the chapel.
Further studies by Spencer, on loan from the Bishop Otter Collection, can be seen at Pallant House Gallery’s concurrent exhibition Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War (15 February – 15 June). Spencer’s poignant memories of war, once described as ‘Britain’s answer to the Sistine Chapel’, are leaving their permanent home at the National Trust’s Sandham Memorial Chapel in Hampshire for the exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery. The complete set of paintings will be on display while the chapel undergoes major conservation work.
From Fields to Factories is curated by Dr Gill Clarke, Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester, who said: “This major exhibition offers an exciting opportunity to explore some significant but sometimes overlooked roles of women in the Home Front workforce, many of which had been the preserve of men. Increasing demands for women to ‘do their bit’ to raise wartime production and contribute to victory led to the expansion of women’s employment both in the fields and factories.”
Among the key works on display at the Otter Gallery is The Women’s Land Army and German Prisoners (1918) by Randolph Schwabe, a war artist on the Home Front recording women’s work on the land. Return from the Farm 1919 by Hilda Carline – the first wife of Stanley Spencer – was inspired by her experiences as a farm worker in the Women’s Land Army. The picture has been loaned from Ferens Art gallery, Hull. A portrait of Hilda (1918) by her brother Richard, also a war artist, will be on display as well as one of his most impressive works Gathering on the Terrace at 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London (1925) – a group portrait which includes Hilda, Stanley Spencer and the artist Henry Lamb.
Dr Clarke added: “A unique part of this exhibition is the series of paintings and drawings by Randolph Schwabe of the Women’s Land Army together with Hilda Carline’s Return to the Farm which drew on memories of her service in the Women’s Land Army in Wangford, Suffolk. Wangford was later the location for her marriage to Stanley Spencer in 1925.
“The Spencer/Carline works form an important link to the exhibition Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War which runs at Pallant House Gallery concurrently and we hope that visitors will enjoy both exhibitions and benefit from their interconnection.”
Dr Clarke is a freelance curator and author whose books include A History of the Women’s Land Army (Sansom & Co. 2008) and biographies on the war artists Evelyn Dunbar and Randolph Schwabe. She guest curated Randolph Schwabe: A Life in Art at St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery, Lymington, in 2012 and is also curating their forthcoming exhibition Home Lad Home: The War Horse Story (1 March – 26 April).
A fully illustrated catalogue edited by Dr Clarke and including essays by Dr Clarke and other academic staff at the University of Chichester will be available to purchase at the Otter Gallery exhibition. A number of events will take place, including talks by the curator, a series of seminars organised by the University of Chichester’s History department, creative writing workshops led by the gallery’s poet in residence Stephanie Norgate, and children’s and adults’ art workshops. Full details are available at the gallery’s website www.chi.ac.uk/ottergallery. There will also be a programme of learning events for local schools.
For more information please contact Catharine Russell, Otter Gallery Assistant, tel. 01243 816098 or email gallery@chi.ac.uk