Charles Ernest Cundall, , (6 September 1890 – 4 November 1971), was an English painter of topographical subjects and townscapes, best known for his large panoramic canvases.

Early life

Cundall was born in

Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manchester city centre, south of Salford and north-east of Altrincham. Str ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. After working as a designer of pottery and stained glass for

Pilkington's Lancastrian Pottery & Tiles Pilkington's Lancastrian Pottery & Tiles was a manufacturer of tiles, vases and bowls, based in Clifton near Pendlebury, Lancashire, England. The company was established in 1892 at Clifton Junction, alongside Fletcher's Canal. The company empl ...

under Gordon Forsyth, Cundall studied at the

Manchester School of Art Manchester School of Art in Manchester, England, was established in 1838 as the Manchester School of Design. It is the second oldest art school in the United Kingdom after the Royal College of Art which was founded the year before. It is now par ...

and obtained a scholarship to the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in 1912. Whilst serving with the

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many wars ...

in World War I, he was wounded in the right arm and had to learn to paint with his left arm before he returned to the RCA in 1918. From 1919 to 1920 he attended the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, and then continued his studies in Paris. Cundall traveled widely throughout Italy in 1921 and 1923 and also journeyed to Sweden, Russia and Spain. He held his first solo show at

Colnaghi's Colnaghi is an art dealership in St James's, central London, England, which is the oldest art museum, commercial art gallery in the world, having been established in 1760. Foundation The business that became the Colnaghi gallery was establis ...

in 1927 and became known for his panoramic pictures, such as 1933's ''Bank Holiday, Brighton'', which is now in the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

collection. His work was part of the art competitions at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

, the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

, and the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

World War II

At the start of World War II, Cundall worked on short-term contracts for the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artist ...

before being given a full-time salaried commission as an Admiralty artist to work on Merchant Navy subjects. Cundall spent time on the Thames, the Medway and in the West Country working on this commission before, in 1941 he was assigned to the Air Ministry. He completed his Admiralty canvases whilst starting work on

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

and

Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

subjects. He spent the first half of 1942 in Northern Ireland painting the American troops arriving there and worked in Scotland in September and October of that year. Cundall painted RAF subjects throughout Britain, worked on a major painting of the commemoration ceremony of the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

for several months in 1943 and visited Quebic in 1944. At the end of the war, King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

purchased two of Cundall's paintings showing war-time activities in

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for many ...

. Among the short-term contracts Cundall completed for the WAAC was his best known work ''The Withdrawal from Dunkirk, June 1940''. Although three WAAC artists,

Edward Bawden Edward Bawden, (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had be ...

, Barnett Freedman and

Edward Ardizzone Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was an English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children. For ''Tim All ...

, had been part of the British Expeditionary Force's retreat from France in 1940, the works they produced were small-scale representations of events in their immediate surroundings. WAAC therefore, quickly, commissioned two artists, Cundall and Richard Eurich to produce large panoramic reconstructions of the evacuation. As neither artist had witnessed the events at Dunkirk, they relied on published accounts, photographs, eyewitness reports and their own imaginations, to make their compositions. The two finished paintings were shown side by side at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in August 1940. The two treatments were very different, and both had their critics and supporters. Most newspaper art critics, and

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

, preferred Eurichs' symmetrical, more classical composition and criticised Cundall for having put too much unresolved detail into his picture, which seemed confused and unruly in places. The Royal Navy reproduced Eurich's painting on its official 1940 Christmas card, but many newspapers also reproduced a Ministry of Information photograph showing two servicemen at the National Gallery seemingly recognising elements of Cundall's composition. This helped create a reputation of authenticity for Cundall's work which has persisted.

Legacy

Cundall was a member of the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

Royal Society of Portrait Painters The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture. Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commissi ...

and other bodies. He was a regular exhibitor at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

from 1918 onwards and was elected an associate member in 1937 and a full member in 1944. He was married to the artist Jacqueline Pietersen (1899–1984). As well as the Tate, works by Cundall are held in the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

, the

RAF Museum The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence and is a registered charity. The museum is split into two separate sites: * R ...

Southampton City Art Gallery The Southampton City Art Gallery is an art gallery in Southampton, southern England. It is located in the Civic Centre on Commercial Road. The gallery opened in 1939 with much of the initial funding from the gallery coming from two bequests, o ...

and several other regional collections in Britain, including in Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cundall, Charles 1890 births 1971 deaths 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English painters Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British Army personnel of World War I British war artists English male painters Olympic competitors in art competitions People from Stretford Royal Academicians Royal Fusiliers soldiers World War II artists Military personnel from Lancashire