Study of a naval gun at Chuignolles (cold day) Accession Number: ART12653

Description

Depicts a naval gun sketched on two sheets of paper with grids drawn in pencil and colour instructions inscribed within. The most powerful land weapons of the Great War were naval guns weighing hundreds of tons apiece (nicknamed Big Berthas by the British); they could be moved on land only by railroad. This was most probably the gun that was captured by members of the 3rd Battalion in a bayonet attack on 23 August 1918.
Arthur Streeton is best known as one of the painters of the Heidelberg School in Melbourne in the late nineteenth century. His name is linked with Tom Roberts, Charles Conder, and Frederick McCubbin as responsible for developing in Australia an impressionist technique of painting, and depicting scenes that embraced the nationalistic concerns of the last two decades of the nineteenth century. During his lifetime he was acknowledged as the finest painter of the Australian landscape; he was the first Australian painter to be honoured by a retrospective exhibition in his own lifetime; and only the second to be knighted.

In 1918 while based in London, he was appointed by the Australian War Memorial as an official war artist and travelled to France to record the involvement of Australians in the battles taking place along the Somme River. During the period of his employment he produced ten paintings and eighty-six drawings that are held by the Memorial. These were all executed in the years 1918 and 1919. The Memorial later purchased his HMS Renown, Sydney Harbour painted in 1922, and commissioned several large paintings of significant wartime subjects.

Details

Accession Number
ART12653
Classification
Art
Object Type
Work on paper
Physical Description
Medium: pencil on paper (two sheets)
Measurement
Overall: 37.4 cm x 110.6 cm
Medium
pencil on paper (two sheets)
Date Made
1918
Whole/Part
Whole
Item Count
1
Credit Line
Presented by the Naval and Military Club, Melbourne, 1937
Copyright
Copyright expired - public domain

Conflicts

Places

Events

Tags

Accession ART12653

More like this

German 38 cm naval gun, captured near Chuignolles

Art ART03521 First World War, 1914-1918

Chuignolles; 1st Australian Division, 1st Infantry Brigade; German 38 cm naval gun, captured by 1st Brigade AIF, gun destroyed before capture; Western Front, Hindenburg Line; South of Cappy Arthur Str

Bridge rebuilt at south Peronne

Art ART03519 First World War, 1914-1918

Depicts a temporary timber bridge built across the Somme River in place of the wrecked bridge, with timber revetments on the banks and a truck travelling across. Arthur Streeton is best known as one

Advanced dressing station at Smith's Farm, near Corbie

Art ART16250 Period 1910-1919

Depicts the dressing station of the 6th Australian Field Ambulance in May 1918 amongst farm buildings belonging to the Smith family. Arthur Streeton is best known as one of the painters of the Heidel

Australian burning effigy of Kaiser in square, Armistice Day

Art ART03523 First World War, 1914-1918

Depicts a crowd of soldiers in Peronne square, surrounded by building skeletons, damaged by war. They are gathered around a bonfire with an effigy of Kaiser hanging from gallows. Arthur Streeton is b

Staff clerks at work, headquarters, St Gratien

Art ART03502 First World War, 1914-1918

Depicts the 2nd Australian Division staff clerks at work in Divisional Headquarters communication facilities, in an improvised office at St Gratien. Arthur Streeton is best known as one of the painte

Mr Howard Williams Day

Art ART50163 First World War, 1914-1918

This is a small poster giving details of a performance at Wandsworth Hospital with an image of a dancer wearing a hat and kicking up her legs. Streeton worked as an orderly at Wandsworth Hospital for

See more similar items →

Record information

Last modified: 7 December 2025 - 10.25 pm