Painting Anzac: a history of Australia’s official war art scheme of the First World War

Abstract

This history of Australia’s official war art scheme of the First World War examines the processes by which its part in the conflict was given pictorial form as part of an official and publicly funded project of nation-building – the project of the official representation of Anzac – which involved representing Anzac in a written history, pictures, photographs, trophies, relics, models and sculptures, and as a national war museum. Conceived during the war by Charles Bean, Australia’s official war correspondent and historian, the object of this project was to construct a story of Australia’s part in the war – the Anzac story – to be told for posterity in a national war museum erected in the nation’s capital as a monument to the AIF, ultimately the Australian War Memorial. The story he constructed told of the arrival on the world stage of a young nation through its supreme military performance and of the forging of a military tradition known as Anzac. While Bean’s involvement in creating the Anzac legend is universally acknowledged, his role in constructing the official version of it has not been recognised. This history fills that gap in knowledge. Revering Britain’s military tradition and inculcated in the forms in which it was represented, Bean resolved to represent the Anzac story identically. Its tradition was represented pictorially by battle pictures, military scenes and portraits. The official war art scheme produced pictures made at the front, large historical pictures which illustrated the Anzac story, and portraits of its principal actors. This history shows how Bean exercised control over the scheme to create an image of Anzac that reflected his conception of it; to ensure that the Anzac story was illustrated as he wished it told for posterity; to promote the idea that Anzac was a military tradition which stood alongside the great traditions of other nations; and to promote the idea that Australia’s future nationality should be defined by that tradition.