0:00:21 > 0:00:24This is Mametz Wood in the Somme.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26It's an eerie, haunted place.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Between the 7th and the 12th July, 1916,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35more than 1,200 Welsh soldiers died here.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39They were either mowed down by German machine guns
0:00:39 > 0:00:41as they walked across the open fields,
0:00:41 > 0:00:45or else they were killed in hand-to-hand fighting in the woods itself.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Many of their bodies still lie here.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56This is hallowed ground.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04This was the bloodiest battle fought by the Welsh throughout
0:01:04 > 0:01:05the First World War.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Three months later, a painter came here to record the scene.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19He was Christopher Williams from Maesteg,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Wales' leading artist of the day
0:01:22 > 0:01:24and friend of David Lloyd George.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29This painting commemorates the sacrifice of those Welsh Tommies,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32but did it also distort what really happened?
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Was it a piece of propaganda?
0:01:39 > 0:01:44The First World War was the first modern industrialised war,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47but it was also the first mass media war,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51with thousands of posters, paintings and photographs produced.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Welsh artists created some of the most memorable images of this conflict.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12In this programme, I'm going to look at the work they produced.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13It's full of surprises.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24It shows very different sides to this brutal war to end all wars.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55I find it almost impossible to imagine what life must have
0:02:55 > 0:03:00been like for soldiers in the trenches of the Somme and Ypres...
0:03:01 > 0:03:04..but I do know what warzones are like.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06As a foreign office minister,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10I went to Iraq and Afghanistan a number of times
0:03:10 > 0:03:12and I took my sketchbook with me.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14The artists in the First World War
0:03:14 > 0:03:17recorded many of the things that I saw
0:03:17 > 0:03:20because wars are not just about blood and guts,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24they're about soldiers sitting around waiting, preparing,
0:03:24 > 0:03:28about villages almost ignoring what's going on around them.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33And it seems to me that art tells us much more than any
0:03:33 > 0:03:36number of photographs about the reality of war.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42When the war against Germany was declared on the evening
0:03:42 > 0:03:45of August the 4th, 1914,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Britain was largely unprepared.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51No-one imagined that a shooting in Sarajevo would
0:03:51 > 0:03:53escalate into a world war.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00There was a huge publicity drive to raise awareness about the war
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and recruit a new Citizen's Army.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06This was the golden age of the poster
0:04:06 > 0:04:11and billboards were festooned with government pronouncements.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13Many were blunt and patronising,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16but some were works of art in their own right.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25They weren't shown in galleries but underground.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34London Underground was at the forefront of graphic design,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38largely through its visionary head of publicity, Frank Pick.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44He hated official government war posters and felt he could do better.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47He commissioned top graphic artists
0:04:47 > 0:04:50to create more interesting images for tube travellers -
0:04:50 > 0:04:52two had links with Wales.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01Gerald Spencer Price came from a prominent West Wales family and
0:05:01 > 0:05:05in 1914, volunteered for the Belgian army,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07drawing what he saw around him.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Frank Brangwyn was born in Belgian to an English father
0:05:13 > 0:05:15and Welsh mother.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18At the outbreak of war, he was a leading designer
0:05:18 > 0:05:22and keen to highlight the plight of his birthplace.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24World War I stuck on walls everywhere
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and now important historical artefacts.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31At the Imperial War Museum in London,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34they have a fantastic collection of these images.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Richard, what have we got here, with these posters?
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Well, we've got three posters from the beginning of the First World War.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44These two, here, are by an artist called Frank Brangwyn
0:05:44 > 0:05:49and this one's by Gerald Spencer Rice and, as you can see,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52these are much more, kind of, artistically focused.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56The sentiments, also, are very, sort of, kind of, high-minded
0:05:56 > 0:05:59through darkness to light,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02fighting to triumph, the only road for an Englishman.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06These are, sort of, pitching the messages at the typical
0:06:06 > 0:06:08commuter using the underground,
0:06:08 > 0:06:09the professionals, the people
0:06:09 > 0:06:12working in the finance and the city,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14a more, kind of, educated audience.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22- They're actually very beautiful objects.- Absolutely, yeah.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24I mean, this is what Pick was all about.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27He was about getting the best designs for the underground, basically.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Pick, himself, you know, took pride in the idea that he was
0:06:33 > 0:06:36actually bringing quality art to the masses, basically.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44What they do show is the importance of posters
0:06:44 > 0:06:46during the First World War.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Obviously, this was at a time before mass, sort of, communication,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54the internet, televisual and radio and things like that,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56so posters was the only, sort of,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58tried and tested method of mass communication.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03And when you're involved in a situation of total war, you have
0:07:03 > 0:07:07to get the public onside and the poster was the best way of doing it.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Now, these are very dramatic images
0:07:09 > 0:07:12but Frank Brangwyn got into some trouble, didn't he,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14with another very dramatic image?
0:07:14 > 0:07:17This is a poster advertising the sale of war bonds
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and it was called Put Strength In The Final Blow,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23which showed this very, sort of, violent image of a Tommy
0:07:23 > 0:07:25bayoneting a German soldier.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29It has a very dubious honour of managing to offend both
0:07:29 > 0:07:32people in Britain and in Germany. And, in Britain, it was deemed too
0:07:32 > 0:07:35violent an image, which might, actually, have a, kind of,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37detrimental effect on morale.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40When news spread of this poster to Germany, it caused a bit
0:07:40 > 0:07:45of a scandal and the Kaiser, Wilhelm, was actually rumoured to
0:07:45 > 0:07:49have been so enraged that he actually placed a bounty on the head of Brangwyn,
0:07:49 > 0:07:51but it was a, sort of, kind of,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54a blip in his career, but it didn't really do him any long-term harm.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Brangwyn wouldn't have minded being on the Kaiser's hit list.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Germany's leader was loathed in Britain,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08especially after the invasion of Belgium,
0:08:08 > 0:08:10which displaced more than a million and a half people.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Over 250,000 refugees came to the United Kingdom
0:08:16 > 0:08:21and many came to Wales, including several noted artists.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25They were brought over by the Davies sisters,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27the women whose Impressionist collection
0:08:27 > 0:08:30hangs at the National Museum.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Some of the Belgian artists' work is still to be
0:08:33 > 0:08:37found in the sisters' former home of Gregynog.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40This is a painting by Valerius de Saedeleer,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45one of the Belgian refugee artists who were helped by Gwendoline
0:08:45 > 0:08:48and Margaret Davies to escape from Belgium
0:08:48 > 0:08:50ahead of the German invasion in 1914.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54Did the Davies sisters see this as an act of patriotism?
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Because of their own interests in the arts,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59and in the visual arts in particular,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02they were very keen to welcome Belgian artists to Wales,
0:09:02 > 0:09:03partly to help them out,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06but they certainly hoped, on a more practical way,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09to influence the standard of art that was being produced in Wales at the time,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12which they felt was not as wonderful as it could be.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17This is a painting of Wales, but it looks very Belgian, Dutch.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18It certainly does.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22That was partly because that was the tradition that he came from,
0:09:22 > 0:09:23that the artist came from,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26but also it was his link with home.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28He had this wonderful, very delicate way
0:09:28 > 0:09:32of using oil paints in very thin,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36with a bitter pencil in it and you get this wonderful, delicate effect.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40- Is it a nostalgic painting? - Oh, I think so, yes.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Probably was a comfort to him to paint as he'd always done
0:09:43 > 0:09:46and to actually interpret the local landscape through his own
0:09:46 > 0:09:47particular vision, you know.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Now, I understand that this artist, de Saedeleer,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53cut a very unusual and elegant figure in Aberystwyth.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Well, the story goes that he used to...he wore a big, black cloak and a big, black hat,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59a bit like GK Chesterton, I suppose, and would...
0:09:59 > 0:10:03could go swanning up and down the prom...
0:10:03 > 0:10:07with the cloak blowing in the wind as the tide came in.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09I can just imagine it, really.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12And he certainly became a well-known figure in the town.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16He used to pay all his girls with paintings...
0:10:16 > 0:10:19- in the great tradition of artists. - SHE LAUGHS
0:10:19 > 0:10:22I think this is a really beautiful picture. I love it.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24It's nice being able to walk past it every morning.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26SHE LAUGHS
0:10:31 > 0:10:35But if Belgian artists were finding peace and tranquillity in Wales,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37for those artists who joined up,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39life at the frontline was very different.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44The war, now into its second year, had ground down to a stalemate,
0:10:44 > 0:10:49with trenches stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55One of those who volunteered was Carey Morris from Llandeilo.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58He'd studied at the Slade School Of Art
0:10:58 > 0:11:02and, at the outbreak of war, was already aged 32.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05But he volunteered for the South Wales Borderers
0:11:05 > 0:11:08and was posted to Belgium, and took his paints with him.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Carey Morris was posted here, the village of Boesinghe,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20a few miles outside of Ypres, right on the front line.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25We know this because he did a painting on this spot.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28This is Boesinghe Chateau,
0:11:28 > 0:11:29since rebuilt.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31But 100 years ago,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34its jagged outline was a landmark on the front line.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42Morris' painting is remarkable because it
0:11:42 > 0:11:44was done on the battlefield,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46the Chateau lit by flares,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49soldiers in the shadows,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52visible only from the glow of their cigarettes.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04Carey Morris wrote about his experiences during the war.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07By all accounts, he was a quiet, reticent man,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10who never spoke about the horrors that he had endured.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14But in one letter, his guard slipped.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20"Everything on both sides was being hurled over.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22"It was hell let loose.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26"Above the din, I heard an explosion very near.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29"There was a tremendous rattle of metal in front of me
0:12:29 > 0:12:34"and, at that moment, a soft, wet mass struck me in the face.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36"I realised, with sadness,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39"that it was the flesh of one of our own men.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46"This one incident should be enough to deter anyone
0:12:46 > 0:12:49"from rushing headlong into a war again."
0:13:00 > 0:13:04One person who knew Carey Morris is Ann Rhys
0:13:04 > 0:13:08and she has two sketches he made in the trenches.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Well, here they are...
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Two drawings.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15They're wonderful drawings, aren't they?
0:13:15 > 0:13:17How did he do these drawings? What did he use?
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Well, he'd lost all his paints after painting the Chateau.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22With great foresight,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24he found little bits of charcoal from the burnt wood
0:13:24 > 0:13:29and used those to do these very rapid, immediate sketches...
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Which are very emotional and telling, aren't they?
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Cos they were done there and then.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37- It looks like a group of his comrades...- Yes.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39..trying to keep warm in front of a fire, maybe.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41It's very evocative, isn't it?
0:13:48 > 0:13:51And this one is the bombardment.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54From what I gather, the bombardment, as he described it,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56went on for five hours.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03And he said that the Bosche had lit these lights
0:14:03 > 0:14:06and the lights dropped like gold dust into the trenches.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14- It must have been spectacular, mustn't it?- Absolutely.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16- Frightening and... - And there's... There's a soldier...
0:14:16 > 0:14:20- There's a soldier there.- ..who's just peeping over the wall.- I know.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Cos, of course, if you stick your head up too far...
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Well, that would be it.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Did he ever...speak about this and these events?
0:14:33 > 0:14:35No, not to me and certainly not to my husband.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38From what I gather, he had to get the...
0:14:38 > 0:14:41My husband, that is, had to get the history of what happened,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44and where and when and how, from his diaries.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48And he was a very eloquent writer - his writing is beautiful.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51And he got more of the history from a friend of his in Llandeilo -
0:14:51 > 0:14:56Brigadier Costello - who told him the story of Carey's war,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59but he never, ever spoke about it.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01And his lungs were in a terrible state from being...
0:15:01 > 0:15:04He was gassed at the end, severely breathless,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06terribly short of breath,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09couldn't really walk up the hill in Llandeilo.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Could only draw, paint for half an hour
0:15:11 > 0:15:13and had an awful productive cough.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17But, there you are. He was lucky to survive, wasn't he?
0:15:17 > 0:15:20So, in a sense, these are what he communicated
0:15:20 > 0:15:23- to the world about that experience. - Yes, yes, yes.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32We now see the war through experiences of soldiers
0:15:32 > 0:15:37like Carey Morris and poets like Siegfried Sussoon and Roberts Graves,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41who expressed the futility of the war.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46But, at the time, it was widely supported.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50There was a huge appetite at home for news and pictures of the war.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Newspapers and magazines sold in their hundreds of thousands
0:15:54 > 0:15:58and were full of illustrations, some by Welsh artists.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12They are almost forgotten now, but one Welsh cartoonist
0:16:12 > 0:16:15was one of the most successful artists of the whole war.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Now this cartoon here, by Bert Thomas,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25this is a very heroic-looking figure, isn't he?
0:16:25 > 0:16:29Yeah. Bert Thomas, who was born in Newport in 1883,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32grew up in Swansea and then worked in London,
0:16:32 > 0:16:35drew for Punch and the weekly London magazine Opinion.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38But this is a Welsh cartoon - Stick It Welsh! -
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and it shows a Welsh soldier advancing,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43presumably into no-man's land,
0:16:43 > 0:16:47one would imagine, during the Battle Of The Somme.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Its title is Stick It Welsh! and that refers back to one of the first
0:16:50 > 0:16:52engagements for Welsh troops in the war.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56And the phrase "Stick It Welsh!" resonates because it was a phrase
0:16:56 > 0:17:00uttered by Captain Mark Haggard in 1914.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04One of his last remarks before he passed away,
0:17:04 > 0:17:05having been severely wounded.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Hmm. And... And, of course, it was Bert Thomas who produced
0:17:08 > 0:17:10one of the most famous of the First World War...
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Yes, this is Arf A Mo Kaiser,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15which Thomas drew, apparently in-between 10 and 15 minutes
0:17:15 > 0:17:17for The Weekly Dispatch
0:17:17 > 0:17:21and this was sketched to raise money for the tobacco for the troops fund,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24and is estimated to have raised about a quarter of a million pounds.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26And it actually went for the cause of buying
0:17:26 > 0:17:29tobacco for the troops on the Western Front?
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Yeah, tobacco for the troops on the Western Front,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35tobacco for wounded soldiers back in hospital in this country.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39And I think this is a wonderful example of how Bert Thomas,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44through his art, captured the sort of endurance, the good humour,
0:17:44 > 0:17:50the somewhat slightly disrespectful of authority nature of the Tommy.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52You can see that the cap on his head is slightly askew.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55And he's not going to be hurried, so you've got a British Tommy here,
0:17:55 > 0:18:00lighting his pipe and just asking Kaiser Bill to give him a moment
0:18:00 > 0:18:01before he has to go into battle.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06And, of course, it was that kind of resilience, I think,
0:18:06 > 0:18:07that robustness,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11which eventually meant that the British army endured the war.
0:18:15 > 0:18:21The Daily Mail called Arf A Mo Kaiser the funniest cartoon of the war.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25But Bert Thomas wasn't just a cartoonist,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29he was also a highly successful poster artist.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34- They're really startling images. - Oh, yeah.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36I mean, they're very beautiful...
0:18:36 > 0:18:38- Graphic designs, aren't they? - Oh, yeah.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Well, this one here, it's about "You buy war bonds, we do the rest!"
0:18:41 > 0:18:45It's a kind of... It's a pact between the fighting forces
0:18:45 > 0:18:47and the public at home.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50"You pay for the war bonds, you pay for the weapons,
0:18:50 > 0:18:52"and we'll do the fighting", essentially.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55So...again, it's about a stoical resolve of Britain's
0:18:55 > 0:18:57forces in the First World War.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Bert Thomas did a huge poster, didn't he,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01outside of the National Gallery in Trafalgar, Square?
0:19:01 > 0:19:05Absolutely. I mean, Trafalgar Square, as it is now,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08is the focal point for public gatherings, meetings
0:19:08 > 0:19:12and things like that, and that was the case in the First World War.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16Bert Thomas' National Gallery poster was the largest produced
0:19:16 > 0:19:21up to that date and this rare newsreel shows the artist himself
0:19:21 > 0:19:23putting the final touches to it.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27We think of these posters as being this sort of size here,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29but, you know, during the war, posters could occupy,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32you know, the side of a building, basically. And, of course,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36this was how the available form of mass communication poster
0:19:36 > 0:19:38was used to its fullest extent
0:19:38 > 0:19:41and here they would be there, sort of flanking these public figures
0:19:41 > 0:19:45as they sort of, you know, banged out their speeches about how it was
0:19:45 > 0:19:48patriotic to join up, to help the troops
0:19:48 > 0:19:50and to pay into the war, basically...
0:19:50 > 0:19:52through your finances, as well.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19Inspired by the posters of Frank Brangwyn and Bert Thomas,
0:20:19 > 0:20:23young men joined up in their hundreds of thousands.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Many came here, to northern France, to the Somme.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31This is a quiet backwater now.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35But 100 years ago, it was bustling with troop trains
0:20:35 > 0:20:40and with green, slightly bewildered soldiers -
0:20:40 > 0:20:44and among them was a young artist called David Jones.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Born in London to a Welsh family, he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
0:20:52 > 0:20:53He'd studied at art school
0:20:53 > 0:20:57and used his drawing skills to record what he saw around him.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05David Jones's sketches are one of the best records we have
0:21:05 > 0:21:07of life in the trenches.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10He shows men at rest.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15They're cooking, cleaning their rifles, waiting.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I've done drawings like this in Afghanistan and Iraq.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23War isn't all blood and guts - a lot of it is boring...
0:21:23 > 0:21:25sitting around.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28David Jones captures this beautifully.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33Jonathon, we've got some of David Jones's drawings here.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37Now you're an ex-military man. Tell me about the detail -
0:21:37 > 0:21:39did he capture what was going on?
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Oh, I think this was a very personal thing.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44The battalion was doing its final training on Salisbury Plain
0:21:44 > 0:21:47before going out to France the following month.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51What James has captured here is a couple of his fellow soldiers,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53who were trying to get some sleep at night,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57wrapped up in their greatcoats and two blankets.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00This was well before the days of Gore-Tex.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Trying to get to sleep with only that was quite testing
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and so much of a man's efficiency, wellbeing, general happiness
0:22:07 > 0:22:12on a campaign depends on getting a bit of good quality sleep at night.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15To get a bit of good quality sleep, you have to be warm
0:22:15 > 0:22:17and you have to be dry, if possible.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Try doing that in a greatcoat and two blankets.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Now, with this one, this is in France, this is in a trench.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28That's right. And, again, this is a casual sketch,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32not an official propaganda shot, so the whole thing's a bit rickety.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34You can see a trained artist at work here
0:22:34 > 0:22:36because he's got a lot of the details.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38You can see how the sandbags have been laid,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40with the seams inside rather than outside,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42so they'll split less easily.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45His cap there, that's an important detail.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Clearly indicating that it's before the issue of the shrapnel helmet
0:22:48 > 0:22:50because, once the shrapnel helmet was issued,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52that's what you wore in the trenches.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54Here he is, still wearing the soft peak.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Why are these drawings important to us, do you think?
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Well, a photograph at that time would generally have been
0:23:00 > 0:23:02taken for official purposes,
0:23:02 > 0:23:07it was to portray the war in a particular light to audiences
0:23:07 > 0:23:09generally at home or indeed abroad,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13whereas a drawing like this is much more personal, it's private.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34The fighting that David Jones was training for
0:23:34 > 0:23:39happened here, in Mametz, in July 1916.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46It was the first battle for the new volunteer Welch division,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50taking the wood heavily defended by a crack Prussian regiment.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55When it was over, the Welch had suffered over 4,000 casualties,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58including 1,200 dead.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Jones was wounded in hand-to-hand fighting.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09He wrote later, "Part of me, the artist within me,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12"has now left the trenches."
0:24:16 > 0:24:20His epic poem, In Parenthesis,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24builds up to the brutal battle for these woods.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41"When the shivered rowan fell you couldn't hear the fall of it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44"Barrage with counter-barrage shockt
0:24:44 > 0:24:48"Deprive all several sounds of their identity,
0:24:48 > 0:24:53"what dark-convulsed cacophony conditions each disparity
0:24:53 > 0:24:57"and the trembling woods are vortex for the storm".
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Mametz Wood was brutal and controversial.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16After the first attack was beaten back, Britain's army chief,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Field Marshal Haig, criticised the Welsh troops
0:25:20 > 0:25:22and sacked their commander,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25who had been personally appointed by Lloyd George.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29But in Wales, the battle was celebrated as a great victory
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and one painting, which Lloyd George had a hand in,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35shows this more than any other.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Beth, tell me about this extraordinary picture.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Well, this enormous painting, which is over three metres wide,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45is Christopher Williams's painting
0:25:45 > 0:25:47of the Welsh division at Mametz Wood.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49The charge of the Welsh division.
0:25:49 > 0:25:50He's not a soldier,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53he's not someone who experienced the battle first-hand,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57but what he was trying to do is to have the second best thing,
0:25:57 > 0:26:01which was to go there to see the site and to meet the soldiers
0:26:01 > 0:26:05who had been fighting to get their first-hand experience.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Then, I think he felt that he really wanted to do justice
0:26:09 > 0:26:12to the Welsh division and this is the result.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15- Why did he paint it? - He was commissioned to paint it.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20So, soon after the battle, he was commissioned by Lloyd George,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23who then arranges for him to go out to France as well.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27It's a tremendously theatrical painting, isn't it?
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Well, I think, if you speak to any soldier,
0:26:29 > 0:26:31they'll tell you that his is totally unrealistic
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and it's not how it would have happened,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37but there's always artistic licence.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39So, what he wanted to do
0:26:39 > 0:26:43was to try and convey an entire battle in one scene.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50There are images and details in this picture that are horrifying.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53The bayoneting that's going on,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56this figure stretching across to put a bullet
0:26:56 > 0:26:59into this German soldier here.
0:26:59 > 0:27:00There are not many paintings, actually,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04that show such intense battle.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07No, so what he's decided to do is not look at the whole field
0:27:07 > 0:27:12but to draw your eye in to a very particular battle.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Yes, this arm is right in the centre of the picture,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17but it also shows what they were up against
0:27:17 > 0:27:19cos this soldier has a pistol,
0:27:19 > 0:27:24whereas he's fighting German soldiers, who have machine guns.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29It's very much a story of David and Goliath -
0:27:29 > 0:27:33the volunteer Welsh amateur soldiers up against
0:27:33 > 0:27:37the very well-trained professional Prussian soldiers.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Yet, if you notice, they are on top of them.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44They are the ones who are commanding this battle.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50But you get that sense of chaos and noise and, you know,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53just a scene of devastation happening before your eyes.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57I like the figure right at the end, where you don't see his eyes,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59his face almost, but his mouth is open
0:27:59 > 0:28:02- and he's just about to release his grenade.- Grenade.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04How did Lloyd George feel about this painting
0:28:04 > 0:28:07when he took ownership of it?
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Well, we don't have written evidence to what he thought about it,
0:28:11 > 0:28:13but we do know that he hung it in Downing Street,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16so it was in the drawing room at 10 Downing Street
0:28:16 > 0:28:20whilst he was Prime Minister and stayed there until 1920,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24which is when it transferred here to the National Museum of Wales.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27I mean, it would have been the talking point of the room, I think.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30Yeah, it's very difficult to see anybody sitting down
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and having a quiet sherry with this hanging behind them.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37Christopher Williams writes that it was always intended to be hung
0:28:37 > 0:28:41in an institution as part of the military history of Wales.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43It's not a domestic painting to hang at home.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Do you think Lloyd George was trying to rub the generals' noses in it
0:28:47 > 0:28:49every time they came to see him?
0:28:49 > 0:28:52No, I think he was showing pride in a battalion
0:28:52 > 0:28:57that he had put together and trying to show the heroics
0:28:57 > 0:29:00that they were up against in this particular battle.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06But what interests me is that it's still being discussed today.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08It's painted for a reaction.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11I don't think you're meant to look at this and say, "That's nice",
0:29:11 > 0:29:13you're meant to react to it.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Question war - was it right, was it not right?
0:29:16 > 0:29:18Who's the hero, who's the villain?
0:29:22 > 0:29:26The soldiers want their experience to be recorded.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28They want history to know about what they've done.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32I think, through this painting, this is how we can learn, really,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35some of the gruesome fighting that did go on.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39This, literally, was man-on-man, which is one of the things,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42I think, that made Mametz such an emotional battle.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55Christopher Williams had special permission from Lloyd George
0:29:55 > 0:29:57to go to the front.
0:29:57 > 0:30:03Also, in 1916, the government set-up a unique official war art project
0:30:03 > 0:30:07to enable artists to portray what was taking place over there.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12The first to take part was a Scot, Muirhead Bone.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15He went to Mametz Wood and this is his drawing.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21Along the edge there is some mud, mud from the Somme,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23stuck here for 100 years,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26after he had put the drawing down for a minute.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38Where Muirhead Bone and Christopher Williams went, others followed.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42Soon, everyone wanted to be a war artist,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45including Wales's most flamboyant painter.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51Augustus John was a legend of London's artistic Bohemia
0:30:51 > 0:30:54and he didn't want to miss out on the action.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56He badgered his friend Lord Beaverbrook
0:30:56 > 0:31:00to get him a commission and he joined a Canadian regiment.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02He was allowed to keep his beard,
0:31:02 > 0:31:08the only British Army officer to do so apart from King George V.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13When he was driven around the frontlines, soldiers,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17seeing him, saluted him because they thought he was royalty.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21You can imagine how much Augustus John loved that.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25His output was limited.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28He later admitted to being overawed by the horrific
0:31:28 > 0:31:30spectacle of the battlefield.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36There are some tender portraits of young Canadian soldiers,
0:31:36 > 0:31:41but Augustus John's brief military career ended in disgrace.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45He got into a fight with a fellow officer
0:31:45 > 0:31:48and was sent home with his tail between his legs.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53He needed Beaverbrook's help to stop him being court-martialed.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04The conflict between 1914 and 1918 was the first truly global war,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and Welsh soldiers and artists travelled the world.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Lunt Roberts was another cartoonist who served with
0:32:12 > 0:32:14the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18His sketchbooks from Palestine and Gallipoli show what he encountered.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32Jonathon, these are the sketchbooks of Lunt Roberts
0:32:32 > 0:32:35and they show, of course, that the war wasn't just in Europe,
0:32:35 > 0:32:37- it was a world war.- Absolutely.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41Lunt Roberts, from North Wales, a trained artist, worked commercially
0:32:41 > 0:32:45before and after the war for major publications like Punch...
0:32:45 > 0:32:48- As a cartoonist?- As a cartoonist. Very well-known in his day indeed.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50And here he is with a bunch of other boys
0:32:50 > 0:32:52from Caernarfonshire and Anglesey,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55many of whom probably had never been abroad before,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58suddenly transported to the Suez Canal.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Here we have the canal and the railway running alongside it.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03It is beautifully drawn and painted,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05very much the work of a trained artist
0:33:05 > 0:33:07who's got a keen eye for observation.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10It's a wonderful composition. Lovely painting.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12Hasn't he got a great eye?
0:33:12 > 0:33:14And by the time he gets to Gallipoli, of course,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16he's knows what it is like, living in the trenches.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19He's done a drawing here, which is absolutely wonderful,
0:33:19 > 0:33:20- full of detail.- Yeah.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23He is probably the dirtiest soldier in the world, attacking what
0:33:23 > 0:33:26looks like a tin of bully beef in the trench,
0:33:26 > 0:33:28hat on the back of his head, bristly moustache.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Probably very hot and very fed up and, boy, doesn't he look it?
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Lunt Roberts survived a war which was a very vicious war -
0:33:36 > 0:33:39a lot of people got killed out there.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42Gallipoli, in particular, was very close up and personal.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45The trenches, in some places, were just a few yards apart.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50A bad climate, a lot of flies, a lot of sickness, illness, disease...
0:33:50 > 0:33:54Everything revolting that you can think about was there.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04Artists at of the front, whether soldiers like Lunt Roberts
0:34:04 > 0:34:09or those on the official war art scheme, were all men.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Women weren't allowed to take part.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20Jobs all over Britain were now being done by women and they weren't going
0:34:20 > 0:34:23to be left out of the artistic war effort either.
0:34:25 > 0:34:29Wales's leading woman artist, Margaret Lindsay Williams,
0:34:29 > 0:34:31was no exception.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36She later painted kings and presidents,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40and one of her wartime paintings hangs in a very grand setting -
0:34:40 > 0:34:43the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51This is the regimental headquarters of the Army Medical Services
0:34:51 > 0:34:53and it's also the home to
0:34:53 > 0:34:58Margaret Lindsay Williams's most impressive painting.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02It shows a nursing sister tending wounded soldiers
0:35:02 > 0:35:06at Cardiff Royal infirmary and, as it was painted in 1916,
0:35:06 > 0:35:11those soldiers were almost certainly wounded at Mametz Wood.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17It's quite an extraordinary painting because it depicts a ward
0:35:17 > 0:35:22in the hospital where First World War soldiers were being treated.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25A lot of the hospitals were set-up around Cardiff,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28some in schools, but this particular hospital was given over to
0:35:28 > 0:35:32military use for the length of the First World War,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36and that particular ward that she's painted ended up being
0:35:36 > 0:35:38called Mametz Memorial Ward.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41So, even at the time, it was recognised that
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Mametz was such an important battle for the people of Wales,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47but what's fascinating for me is that you can see the actual
0:35:47 > 0:35:50soldiers behind them and what they were doing.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52There are some smoking pipes, they are relaxing.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55They are obviously not critically ill, but they're there
0:35:55 > 0:35:58recuperating in this very neat and organised hospital ward.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02Now, it's a big painting, isn't it? It is a very impressive canvas.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05It is. She did some very huge paintings
0:36:05 > 0:36:07and that's not the largest one, by far.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09But it actually hung in the hospital,
0:36:09 > 0:36:11so it was to be seen in a public place,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14so that's why, I suppose, it was so big.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17It wasn't for a domestic house - it was for a public space.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21She wanted to go to the front and paint the battlefield,
0:36:21 > 0:36:23- but she wasn't allowed, was she? - No.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Unfortunately, no females were allowed on the front line,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30even nurses, at that time, and all artists who were proposed
0:36:30 > 0:36:33or put their services forward were rejected.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36So, although she wrote to Lloyd George asking, personally,
0:36:36 > 0:36:39if she could go and become an official war artist,
0:36:39 > 0:36:40she wasn't allowed.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45She did, however, do what she could, so she held exhibitions in Cardiff,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49for instance, where all the proceeds went to Welsh soldiers.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52She also offered commissions at reduced price to raise money
0:36:52 > 0:36:54and, of course,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58painted this huge painting of the care of wounded soldiers.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04The painting shows the growing importance
0:37:04 > 0:37:06of women to the war effort.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Women were now working everywhere...
0:37:11 > 0:37:15..driving buses and trains, working in munitions factories.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19Sadly, little of this is documented in Wales,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22but there is one remarkable collection of photographs.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28They show women brick-workers at a factory in South Wales.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31The women look surprisingly contemporary
0:37:31 > 0:37:34and even appear to be having a good time.
0:37:38 > 0:37:44But by 1918, the terrible human cost of the war was becoming clear
0:37:44 > 0:37:50and artists, even official war artists, began to reflect this.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55CRW Nevinson and was born to a family with Welsh roots.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59He had worked as a medic at the beginning of the war
0:37:59 > 0:38:02before becoming an acclaimed war artist.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04In the final year of the conflict,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08he produced his most controversial painting.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11- Richard, this is a very powerful painting.- Hm.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15- And it was one that was suppressed by the War Office, wasn't it?- Yes.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19It cuts across the reality of, you know, the mud,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23the barbed wire, the death at the Western Front.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27Now, Nevinson was commissioned, officially, to paint this picture...
0:38:27 > 0:38:29- Hmm.- ..or to paint A picture.
0:38:29 > 0:38:30Yes.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Well, he was commissioned to produce a body of work,
0:38:33 > 0:38:35of which formed part of it.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38And the War Office didn't like it?
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Unsurprisingly, the War Office censor banned it,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45saying that images of this kind can have a detrimental effect
0:38:45 > 0:38:48on public morale. And there was an injunction placed on it, basically.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50It wasn't allowed to be shown.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53You can see why the War Office didn't want this exhibited.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57So, what did Nevinson do in order to show it to the public?
0:38:57 > 0:39:00He thought, right up to the 11th hour, that the ban would be lifted
0:39:00 > 0:39:03and, when it wasn't, he kept it in the show,
0:39:03 > 0:39:05his one-man show at the Leicester Galleries.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09Instead of taking it down, he pasted a strip of brown gum-strip
0:39:09 > 0:39:13over it and wrote "censored", as ever the showman,
0:39:13 > 0:39:18the self-publicist, which of course created tremendous public outcry.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22And, you know, the people flocked to see this banned painting.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Nevinson, of course, got into no end of trouble with the War Office
0:39:26 > 0:39:29over this, but it was water off a duck's back.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32He got hauled over the coals over it,
0:39:32 > 0:39:34but he gleefully reported back
0:39:34 > 0:39:38to his employers at the Department of Information that his show
0:39:38 > 0:39:41was enjoying a record-breaking attendance,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44so, you know, it had done the job for him.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55This painting by Frank Brangwyn was commissioned originally
0:39:55 > 0:40:00for the House of Lords but, after the war had ended,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04the grim reality of the huge numbers of men killed and wounded
0:40:04 > 0:40:07had sank in.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16The House of Lords rejected the picture.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20They didn't want it, perhaps because it reminded them
0:40:20 > 0:40:24too much of the horrors of the previous four years.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32But there were some works of art that played
0:40:32 > 0:40:35a vital role in commemorating the war,
0:40:35 > 0:40:39and they're to be found in every town and village across Wales.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45Over 35,000 men from Wales died during the First World War,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50and memorials were erected everywhere to mark their loss.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53This memorial is in the centre of Wrexham and commemorates
0:40:53 > 0:40:58the men of the Royal Welch Fusiliers who were based in this town.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03It was designed by William Goscombe John, Wales's most famous sculptor,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07and it shows an 18th-century fusilier
0:41:07 > 0:41:11passing on the colours to a veteran of the First World War.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25This is the war memorial close to the school that
0:41:25 > 0:41:27I attended in Mountain Ash.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Building these memorials was a huge project -
0:41:30 > 0:41:33nothing like it had been attempted before.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36They were built to last and often involved using
0:41:36 > 0:41:41the best sculptors, and their power resonates even after 100 years.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55In the 21st century, we have technology that allows us
0:41:55 > 0:41:58almost instant access to the images
0:41:58 > 0:42:01and sounds of battlefields across the globe.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05None of this existed during the First World War.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13What we know now about life in the trenches has come to us
0:42:13 > 0:42:16not only through official photographs and accounts but,
0:42:16 > 0:42:21more importantly, from those artists who witnessed the dangers
0:42:21 > 0:42:25and hardships of battlefields from the Western Front
0:42:25 > 0:42:29to Gallipoli, Palestine and beyond.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37Even after 100 years, the drawings, paintings
0:42:37 > 0:42:41and monuments that came out of the Great War have the power to
0:42:41 > 0:42:46move us as profoundly as anything generated by a century
0:42:46 > 0:42:49of subsequent wars and conflict.