The Face of Courage - Portraits of the British at War, 1940 to 1945 by Eric Kennington

For much of his distinguished career, Kennington was regularly classed by leading critics as belonging to the ranks of such exceptional portraitists as: Hans Holbein the Younger; Albrecht Dürer; Franz Hals; Van Gogh and Augustus John. Furthermore, many of his artistic contemporaries rated him as one of the finest draughtsman of his day and while among famous contemporaries who admired Kennington’s portraiture were: Winston Churchill; J.B. Priestley; Siegfried Sassoon; George Bernard Shaw; Geoffrey de Havilland; Richard Hillary and T.E. Lawrence.

The exhibition will present about three dozen works covering all of the Armed Services, the Auxiliary Services and London Transport and some notable civilians. Pictures have been loaned to the show by the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, the National Army Museum, the Tate, the National Maritime Museum, the Ministry of Defence as well as from Kennington’s family and other private lenders and art dealers.

Kennington was among only a handful of British artists who distinguished themselves as official British war artists during both World Wars. His portraits were widely hailed as works of art and as morale-boosters for they presented British Servicemen in a guise that convinced many spectators that the nation’s armed forces did indeed contain men who had the will to triumph over their German, Italian and Japanese opponents in battle.

This exhibition, the first to focus specifically on his Second World War Art, seeks to reassess Kennington’s significant contribution to British War Art and to acknowledge his undoubted standing as one of the great British portraitists of the Twentieth Century. In a ‘People’s War’ he produced unforgettable images of ordinary men and women who displayed extraordinary courage and resource.