Powerful paintings and poems to illustrate the futility of war
This year marks the centenary of the bloody World War I battle of Mametz Wood. Abbie Wightwick tells how a major exhibition will honour the fallen...
AMAJOR exhibition marking the start of events to remember the centenary of one of the bloodiest battles fought by Welsh soldiers during World War One is to open at the National Museum in Cardiff tomorrow.
War’s Hell! The Battle of Mametz Wood in Art honours the hundreds of Welsh soldiers killed and thousands injured in the battle which began in early July 1916 as the Somme offensive was at its height.
Men from the 38th Welsh Division, many of them volunteers, had been trained for warfare in the trenches when they met the élite Lehr Regiment of Prussian Guards in the milelong, mile-wide undergrowth of Mametz Wood in northern France – with disastrous results.
Whole Welsh communities reeled from losing their young men as the slaughter of more than 600 Welsh soldiers, and thousands more injured, came to symbolise the futility of war.
The fighting was immortalised by artists, poets, and soldiers’ sketches which have been brought together for the first time in the exhibition.
The display reveals how the battle inspired artists and poets serving at Mametz, such as Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and David Jones.
The painting The Charge of the Welsh Division at the Battle of Mametz Wood, by Maesteg-born artist Christopher Williams, forms the centre of the show.
The work, commissioned by then Prime Minister David Lloyd George to commemorate Mametz, hung in Downing Street before being moved to the regimental museum in Caernarfon.
Also on display is work by Cardiffborn Margaret Lindsay Williams, an established artist who was refused her request to become official war artist with the Welsh division because she was a woman.
Her 1916 painting Care of Wounded Soldiers at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary depicts the cost of war for men who returned.
The exhibition also includes the largest-ever group of David Jones’ war drawings brought together in one space.
The sketches, made in the trenches by the teenage soldier, whose family came from Flintshire and who went on to become an acclaimed modernist artist as well as a war poet, show soldiers away from battle, as well as the rats they shared their lives with.
Other items include war poet Siegfried Sassoon’s pistol, a map showing the ill-fated battle plan, and watercolours and photographs of the wood after battle – complete with mud smears.
Excerpts of poetry are displayed alongside art in the exhibition, which takes its title from Robert Graves’ poem A Dead Boche.
Exhibition curator Beth McIntyre said the exhibition “explores how this particular battle has become embedded in the Welsh national identity and has come to represent the bravery and sacrifice of Welsh troops in the First World War”.
Phil Davies, secretary of the Western Front Division South Wales branch, believes Mametz is important to remember because of the impact it had and the lessons learned.
“Whole Welsh communities identified with that battle because they lost so many men,” he said.
“It was futile and ridiculous but there is also another side – the camaraderie and sense of duty the men felt.
“This teaches us about the futility of war and the importance of remembrance.”
Showing how the battle still resonates today, the exhibition also includes work by Owen Sheers, who was due to read his poem Mametz Wood before guests from the armed forces at a private viewing last night.
An opera based on David Jones’ poem In Parenthesis has also been commissioned by exhibition partner Welsh National Opera, which marks its 70th anniversary this year.
In Parenthesis, by composer Iain Bell, premieres at the Wales Millennium Centre next month.
War’s Hell! : The Battle of Mametz Wood in Art runs from April 30 until September 4 at the National Museum Cardiff