Great war painting up for auction
on 28 Feb 2008
An historic painting, called Incident at Bullecourt, by war artist
Mervyn Napier Waller goes up for sale next month. The painting depicts Australian and Scottish soldiers on the front line in France during World War I. It's unusual in that the artist painted it with his left hand after the right was blown off. It is expected to fetch upwards of $10,000.
"The watercolour was painted by the artist with his left hand after he lost his right hand in action in the same year," Menzies Art Brands head of art Tim Abdallah said in a statement. "The painting was one of the war sketches he did on his return to Australia in 1917." The scene shows a group of soldiers hunched forward as they march uphill, with rolling hills in the distance. The battle at Bullecourt was also the focus of a tribute by Keith Murdoch, then a young war correspondent, who wrote about how Australian and Scottish troops "fought their way steadily with bomb and bayonet through the enemy lines". link
