This book is about the "Recording Britain" scheme launched in 1940, which I refered to earlier in my research - "a unique visual record of the much-loved but rapidly changing British landscape of fifty years ago, captured by many of the country's finest watercolourists including John Piper, Michael Rothenstein, Rowland Hilder and William Russell Flint."
It was published in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum and was written by David Mellor, Gill Saubders and Patrick Wright.
Extract from introduction by Gill Saunders, pg 7 :
"artists should be appointed to make drawings, paintings and prints at the war fronts, in factories, workshops, shipyards and on the land, and of the changed life of the towns and villages, thus making a permanent record of life during the war which would be a memorial to the national effort, and of particular local value."
Also on pg 7, there is an interesting quote from Herbert Read about the aims of the scheme. It includes the words, "it shows us exactly what we are fighting for." This is very relevent to my essay question.
The images in this book are a huge contrast to John Piper's shocking paintings of the destroyed buildings, as this scheme was to represent the peace and tranquility that Britain was trying to protect from industrialisation as well as War.
This book should provide me with a lot more background information on the "Recording Britain" scheme which I am interested in.
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