Linda Kitson (born 17 February 1945) is a British artist. She is best known for her work as an official war artist during the Falklands Conflict.

Early life

Kitson studied at

St Martins School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of t ...

and 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 ...

, where she specialised in

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...

. She then taught at Camberwell College of Arts, Chelsea College of Art and Design the

City and Guilds Art School Founded in 1854 as the Lambeth School of Art, the City and Guilds of London Art School is a small specialist art college located in central London, England. Originally founded as a government art school, it is now an independent, not-for-profit ...

and the Royal College of Art.

Falklands conflict

Kitson was commissioned by the Artistic Records Committee of 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 ...

as the official war artist for the

Falklands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

Task Force. She is the first female artist to have been officially commissioned to accompany troops in battle. In May 1982, Kitson sailed to the

with 3,000 men on the

Queen Elizabeth 2 ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named ''Queen Elizabeth'', was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic ...

and later the SS Canberra, arriving on 3 June 1982. She followed British forces across the island to

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

, usually three or four days behind the action. Over a period of three months, under conditions of sleet, hail, snow, mud and sub-zero temperatures, and working at speed, she made over 400 drawings in

conté Conté (), also known as Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a clay base, square in cross-section. They were invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who create ...

crayon A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax an ...

. She drew continuously, recording training and preparation; the transfer at

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

to SS Canberra, the landings at

San Carlos Bay San Carlos Bay is a bay located southwest of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers, Florida, at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. It connects to Pine Island Sound to the west and to Matlacha Pass National Wildlife Refuge, Matlacha Pass to the north. ...

, the deployment of the forces to

Goose Green Goose Green is a settlement in Lafonia on East Falkland in the Falkland Islands. It lies on Choiseul Sound, on the east side of the island's central isthmus, south-southwest of Darwin. With a population of about 40, it is the third-largest s ...

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

, Darwin, and Port Stanley. Following the ceasefire in June, she drew the aftermath of the fighting. She captured the daily life of the troops and the conditions under which they had to operate, showing all aspects of the conflict except the fighting. After the re-taking of the Falklands, Kitson returned to Britain with the

Welsh Guards The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V ...

and

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. Many of Kitson's drawings are now part of the Imperial War Museum’s art collection, and were exhibited to the general public in November 1982. They were featured again in the Museum's exhibition ''Women War Artists'', in 2011-2012.

References

External links

*
''Sir Galahad Moored at Fitzroy. She continued to burn until she was towed out to sea and sunk as a War Grave. 16 June 1982.''
on

Google Art Project Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

. Accessed 4 April 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitson, Linda 1945 births Living people British illustrators British war artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Artists commissioned by the Imperial War Museum Academics of Camberwell College of Arts Academics of Chelsea College of Arts Academics of the Royal College of Art

Early life

Falklands conflict

Further reading

References

External links