Exhibition of the week War in the Sunshine, The British in Italy 1917-18

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London N1 (020-7704 9522, www.estorickcollection.com). Until 19 March

For most of us, the story of the First World War is defined by the “mud, gas and trenches” of the Western Front, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. Indeed, so persistent is such imagery that it may “come as a surprise” to learn that between 1917 and 1918, more than 200,000 British troops were sent to fight alongside their Italian allies against Austria in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy. Now, following a five-month refurbishment, London’s Estorick Collection has put together a new exhibition that shines a light on Britain’s involvement in the conflict. This idiosyncratic museum has been exhibiting modern Italian art in an Islington townhouse since 1998, and boasts a collection that includes works by the likes of Modigliani, de Chirico and Morandi. This show, however, is a something of a departure, presenting the work of three Britons who witnessed the Italian Front firsthand: the war photographers William Joseph Brunell and Ernest Brooks, and the artist and pilot Sydney Carline, whose “vertiginous” paintings offer a “thrilling” bird’s-eye view of the combat. Altogether, it makes for an “eye-opening” exhibition.

Carline was “unique in being equally gifted as pilot and painter”, said Mark Hudson in The Daily Telegraph. Having trained at the Slade school, he enrolled in the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, but never lost his passion for art. Incredibly, he would sketch away in the open cockpit of his Sopwith Camel biplane, often while manning a machine gun, or even controlling his plane with his knees. He then worked his sketches into oil paintings, which give an “exhilarating” sense of the landscape from the aircraft’s “shifting perspective”. Best of all are the “frantically executed” paintings in which “you can really smell terror and death”, such as Sopwith Camel Patrol Attacking an Austrian Aerodrome near Sacile (1918) – depicting “blasted buildings” billowing smoke as planes “career above them”.

The photographs are also intriguing, said Laura Cumming in The Observer. Brooks – whose work was greatly respected by Robert Capa – shows British soldiers “bartering for fruit, marshalling messenger dogs, marching into Venice” – but it is Brunell who really shines. His images capture “the strangeness” of Italy for the Tommies, with kilted Highlanders meeting Venetian carabinieri, and infantrymen flirting with “Italian beauties”. The two nationalities seem “hesitant, occasionally suspicious, always intrigued”. All in all, this is a “perfectly chosen” show with which to reopen the Estorick.