Drawn on the spot: War artists and the illustrated press

Background

During the Crimean War (1854-56) journalists and artists were to sent to the battlefield on behalf of newspapers to deliver an unprecedented record of the conflict as it unfolded. War, which had once been a remote event, was suddenly opened up for public scrutiny.

Increasing literacy rates and the widening of the voting franchise meant more people craved news - so the influence of the press was increasingly rising. New technology like the telegraph also encouraged the public to demand accurate, informative, up-to-date news from around the world. Improved distribution by railway and cheaper printing methods led to further growth in the newspaper market.

John Delane, the editor of The Times, asked the journalist, William Howard Russell, to accompany the Brigade of Guards when it left Britain for the Crimea in February 1854. Men like Russell were to be the world’s first genuine war correspondents. They lived and worked on the battlefield to provide a commentary on the progress of the war.

Their features provided the public with eye-witness accounts from the front line, personal perspectives on the world of the ordinary soldiers and junior officers, which could be read alongside the bland reports of the government and military commanders.

Censorship of the press

Unlike in France, Russia and Turkey, the British press was uncensored. But the British military establishment didn’t offer journalists any official recognition either, and those in authority regarded them with contempt. However, restrictions on journalists did not actually materialise until 1856, when Lieutenant-General Sir William Codrington set a precedent for managing journalists in future conflicts by introducing press censorship in the British camp.

Ironically, writing nearly 50 years later, Russell conceded that, ‘I am bound to say from my personal experience, that I consider control and supervision of young camp correspondents in war-time to be very necessary in civilised countries.’

Illustrated newspapers

Founded in May 1842, The Illustrated London News was the world’s first illustrated newspaper. Although a number of newspapers had included drawings of news events from time to time, The Illustrated London News was the first to include high quality wood engravings as a regular feature of its publication.

Its elaborate full page illustrations were engraved using the end-grain of woodblocks, a technique which had been pioneered in the late 18th century and developed by a number of magazines in the 1830s.

Unlike steel engraving, the durability of woodblocks meant that they could withstand hundreds of thousands of impressions and could printed alongside type.

From fantasy to reality

Before the outbreak of the Crimean War, the illustrated press employed artists such as Gustave Doré, to create images from reports and photographs. Doré’s illustrations were romantic depictions of battles, characterised by dramatic, crowded images of closely-packed ranks of identical soldiers charging the enemy. 

Doré's drawings contrasted with the more realistic images submitted by the special correspondents from the battlefield. As the war unfolded, paintings with imaginary reconstructions of battles no longer satisfied public demand for images of war.

The first illustrations of the Russian naval port of Sevastopol appeared in The Illustrated London News in June 1854, and were after drawings by a naval officer, Lieutenant Montagu O’Reilly.

During the course of the war, the illustrated newspapers published many drawings by members of the armed forces – one carried advertisements offering the substantial reward of £100 for the best collection of drawings by an officer of the British Army or Royal Navy serving in the Crimea showing scenes connected with the war.

War illustrators

Initially The Illustrated London News sent three correspondents, Edward Goodall, Joseph Archer Crowe and Constantin Guys, to report as direct observers of the war in the Crimea. Crowe, a talented watercolourist, had been a reporter for The Daily News from 1846.

Artists like Crowe, although employed by the press, were not regarded by the military with the same suspicion as journalists. They were allowed to occupy tents close to those of the army. However, living and working so near to the action also had its disadvantages. Crowe’s autobiography is filled with accounts of his encounters with mortars and bullets.

Alterations

Crowe's watercolours were characterised by a vivid fluidity which was lost when they were transferred to print. The dense nature of box-wood used for wood engraving meant that it was hard to work, making it difficult to reproduce the subtleties of drawing.

His sketches were also often revised and redrawn by the engravers in London in order to heighten their sense of drama.

Lieutenant Henry John Wilkinson of the 9th (The East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot was a prolific amateur artist who also illustrated the Crimea. His sketches are of variable technical ability and range from quick, well-observed studies drawn on small sketchbook pages in pencil or pen and ink, to larger, detailed scenes rendered by a delicate use of watercolour over pencil.

The Illustrated London News reproduced a number of Wilkinson’s drawings but altered many of them for clarity.

Beyond the Crimea

After the Crimean War, printing processes improved so the number of drawn illustrations in the illustrated press declined in favour of photographs. By the outbreak of the Boer War (1899-1902), some illustrated papers used glossy, heavier paper, better suited to reproducing photographs.

In March 1900, The Illustrated London News noted that ‘sketches and photographs from South Africa, now arriving in profusion, help those who live at home at ease to picture scenes of which the cable or the newsletter has already made them aware.’

Fought over a vast expanse of territory and far from London, images of the war lagged behind events that they depicted by weeks. But the delay offered some advantages to editors, who could gauge public opinion and publish accordingly. Staff artists could redraw images sent from foreign correspondents to include prominent features or the portraits of prominent individuals.

But the illustrated press included virtually no examples of anti-war or pro-Boer imagery because it was images of heroism that sold newspapers.

Objective?

Wollen was among 150 war correspondents recommended for the Queen’s South Africa Medal for service during the Boer War. Although it implies a loss of objectivity, William Howard Russell had also been awarded campaign medals for his war reporting and this practice has continued to this day.

During the First World War the illustrated press were still going strong despite the growing use of photographs. They reported current military news, and serialised books, many of which drew on military events of the past.

A war artist today 

Sketches of war are not a familiar feature of newspapers today, but The Times sent Matthew Cook as an artist-reporter to Iraq in 2003. Trained as an illustrator, Cook had also been a Territorial Army soldier for nearly two decades.

Cook’s drawings of Iraq and Afghanistan continue a tradition of military artists capturing the quieter realities behind the mainstream news. They give us a window onto the realities of soldiering, often more subtle and insightful than the photographs that fill modern news reports.