The Grand Fleet by Muirhead Bone

Category: The Hunterian: Art Collections: GLAHM 18230, 18231, 18232, 18233, 18234, 18235

Location: In storage in the Print Room at the Hunterian Art Gallery (may be viewed on appointment)

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Physical description: Six Lithograph signed proofs presented in a folio entitled “THE GRAND FLEET/ from collection presented to British Museum by his Majesty’s Government/ published by Country Life MCMXVII” The six prints included in the contents are;

I. H.M.S. ‘Lion’ in Dry Dock

II. On board a Battle-cruiser (H.M.S. ‘Lion’)

III. A Battleship at Night

IV. Inside the Turret

V. ‘Oiling’: a Battleship taking in Oil Fuel at Sea

VI. The Boiler Room of a Battleship

Muirhead Bone, ‘With the Grand Fleet: H.M.S. Lion in Dock,’ photo-lithograph, © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 18231

 

 

 

 

I. Officially ‘sunk’ by the Germans, she will yet prove a troublesome ghost to them.

 

 

 

 

Muirhead Bone, ‘With the Grand Fleet: A Battleship at Night’, photo-lithograph, © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 18232

 

 

 

III. One feels considerable awe when threading one’s way in a small picket boat between the ships of the Fleet at night.

 

 

 

LOCAL LAD DONE GOOD

Muirhead Bone, born in Partick, Glasgow in 1976 became the first British Official War Artist on the 15^th July 1916. He was the leading draughtsman in the country at this stage, and his appointment was seen as a rescue from his impending call-up. A month later in August, he was sent to the Front line during the Somme offensive to begin work. However, Bone would soon return home to record the British war effort from the Home-front. “At the beginning of March 1917 he was sent to the Grand Fleet at Rosyth and worked for three weeks recording daily life at sea, from oiling and practice firing to stretcher drill.”[1] It is the work completed during those three weeks that are contained in The Grand Fleet folio.

THE WRITTEN WORD

Although the prints may be viewed as stand-alone works of art, their propagandist purpose of Bone’s work is clearly revealed through the partnership of image and word. Very loaded texts would often be contributed by army and government officials such as Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig and C. E. Montague in order to enforce a certain type of reading. That our nation is powerful, we are capable of creating such machines, we have the upper hand, and this is victory in the making!  A heightened sense of Britishness, pride, power and superiority is clearly enforced here. One need only look at the text which accompanies the print ‘H.M.S. ‘Lion’ in Dry Dock’, which is used to retort the claim made by the Germans, that this powerful ship had been sunk at Jutland.

WHY LITHOGRAPHY?

“Some of the plates were issued separately or in portfolios in “de luxe” editions… 5,000 each of ‘Munition Drawings’ and ‘With the Grand Fleet.’”[2] It is the ‘de luxe’ editions of Grand Fleet and Munition Drawings which are now held in the Hunterian Art Gallery’s collections.

Bone’s original prints or plates could be easily duplicated in order to circulate huge numbers of reproductions, not only in Britain but for an international market also, due to the lithography process he chose to create his artworks.  Lithography is historically a commercial technique and is based on the opposition of water and grease. The Hunterian holds an impressive collection of lithographs from many artists and periods which represent the longevity, variety and success of the technique.

Augustus John, ‘The Bathers,’ lithograph, © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 44857

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, ‘Advertising label for Basset-Lowke Ltd.’ c.1915-23, lithograph, © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 41664

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, ‘Mlle Marcelle Lender en buste,’ 1895, colour lithograph, © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 44499

The traditional lithographic process, as Bone would have obeyed;

• A porous limestone block is prepared using an abrasive substance so as to make the surface as smooth and grease free.
• Using the medium ‘tusche’ a greasy ink substance, which comes in the form of sticks or crayons which are diluted in water, the artist can apply his drawing or design directly onto the limestone block.
• When the drawing or design is complete, a mixture of acid and gun Arabic is applied. This fixes the drawing to the stone’s surface.
• Once dried, water is applied to the entire drawing. The water is absorbed by the undrawn areas and repelled by the greasy nature of the tusche used to create the drawing. Thus establishing, ink accepting and ink rejecting areas in the same plane.
• The surface must be kept continually wetted in order to remain damp.
• Ink is then applied using a roller. The ink is attracted to the drawing and repelled by the water.
• Paper is then placed onto the stone and a press is applied.
• The drawing or design is then transferred, in reverse on to the paper and the process is complete.

In theory, large numbers possibly thousands of impressions can be made if the original drawing or design is strong enough for the process to be repeated on a large scale.

So how did Bone’s Grand Fleet prints reach the public during WWI? And how did they almost cause Bone to suffer a semi nervous breakdown? Take a look at the entry on Bone’s Munition Drawings to find out more.

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[1] Meirion and Susie Harries, The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century, (London: N. Joseph in association with the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Gallery, 1983) 11.

[2]Susan Malvern, ‘Art, Propaganda and Patronage, an History of the Employment of British War Artists 1916-1919’, unpublished Thesis, Department of History of Art, University of Reading, (Sep, 1981), 150.