It’s the time of Remembrance in Canada – designated for Nov. 11 because it was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 that WWI fighting officially stopped after Germany signed an armistice with Allies earlier in the day. (Above: Major Charles Comfort’s Canadian Armour Passing Through Ortona, 1944)
Read more about Canada’s top war artist Major Charles Comfort, here.
It’s also the time we revere the Canadian doctor and soldier John McCrae, who wrote the famous poem In Flanders Field. It’s the impetus for the poppies we see around the world today. Here is Leonard Cohen – Canada’s revered late poet – reciting it.
Many Group of Seven artists were also prominent in the art of war, with Arthur Lismer especially active. This is his 1919 Convoy in Bedford Basin, a depiction of merchant ships forming a transatlantic convoy at Halifax (a naval base for ships sending food, supplies and personnel to Britain and Europe).
As is always the case, the Art Canada Institute has a superb read on Canadian War Art, written by Laura Brandon, curator and historian at the Canadian War Museum from 1995 to 2015. See that site here.
This painting by the late Alex Colville remains my favourite for Remembrance Day, not because it depicts war but because it shows how remembering it is so much a part of a community’s daily life. See the full post below.
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I was just at the hospital having my annual mammogram, and as I waited to be sent home a young woman came on the speakers and recited the poignant McCrae poem, In Flanders Fields. I am always so touched by the ways people have of remembering those who gave thier lives so that we might continue to live in our simple Canadian world. Thanks for remembering as well JW. Things are difficult at the moment, but they have been harder at other times.
Best,
Suzanne Tevlin
Thank you Suzanne, you’re so right about the touching ways of remembering, I’ve been reading so many examples in the last couple of days. And you’re also right about things being difficult at the moment, but we need to consider how many more burdens we’ve dealt with in the past. Take care.
[…] Remembrance – The Art of War […]
Thank you for sharing this. Leonard Cohen had the perfect voice for reading In Flanders Fields. Beautiful paintings.
You’re right about his voice. He’s also such a Canadian icon that it made sense to whoever put this together to ask him to recite such an iconic Canadian poem.
Innocent lives pay for the greed of power hungry men, who sit safely in their offices and count numbers.
As we see all over the world when the war machine gears up.
A very moving reciting of “Flanders Field.” Thank you for this.
You are most welcome. I also find this moving, especially when Leonard Cohen reads it, but also when just about anyone recites it.
Very fine. Thanks