TB case Accession Number: ART90919

Description

A figure study of an emaciated prisoner that Chalker notes was a TB case. Here, Chalker captures one of TB's classic symptoms, weight loss. The prisoner stares out beyond the picture plane.

Jack Chalker, serving in the Royal Artillery, was captured at the fall of Singapore. In October 1942 he was in a party sent to Thailand to construct the Burma-Thailand Railway. Chalker secretly made drawings of the various camps and conditions endured by the prisoners. He drew and painted on whatever materials he could find or steal from the Japanese, hiding his work in sections of bamboo buried in the ground, the attap roofs of huts, or the artificial legs worn by amputees in the hospital camps. His work provides a candid and moving record of the prisoners' suffering.

Details

Accession Number
ART90919
Artist
Jack Bridger Chalker
Classification
Art
Object Type
Work on paper
Physical Description
Medium: pencil on paper mounted on paper on card
Measurement
Overall
Medium
pencil on paper mounted on paper on card
Date Made
1945
Place Made
Whole/Part
Whole
Item Count
1
Credit Line
presented by the estate of Edward (Weary) Dunlop 1998
Copyright
AWM Licensed copyright

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Last modified: 6 August 2025 - 2.24 am