ORIGINAL
GRAPHITE
DRAWING
GRAPHITE
DRAWING
Original £758.5x3.5 inches (20x9 cm)
Pencil on
German Etching Board
Framed £10012x7 inches (30x18 cm)
Pencil on
German Etching Board
in gun metal frame
About "Artist" Frames
This week's Legendary Art
is one of Peter's Aviation investigative drawings examining the blue and
white checkered Sopwith 2F1, Ship's Camel as flown by Captain Bernard
Arthur Smart from a converted large cruiser HMS Furious in 1917. This aircraft was one of seven
launched from HMS Furious on July 19 1917 as part of the first
carrier air strike in history, a British bombing raid mounted by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force officially designated Operation F.7, the target being the the Imperial German Navy's airship base at Tondern in Germany. The aircraft were specially configured for the mission with
bomb racks and bomb sights, and the Lewis guns were left behind to save
weight. The raid was a success with two Zeppelins being destroyed in
their sheds by the 50-pound bombs dropped by the Camels. Only two of
the Camels managed to return to Furious, one of which was Smart's
aircraft but they destroyed two German Zeppelins, L.54 and L.60 plus a captive balloon
for the loss of only one pilot while Tondern was abandoned as an active
base, and ordered to be used only as an emergency landing site. Captain
Smart was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for
this exploit. The
Sopwith 2F1 Camel a was naval version of the famous standard Sopwith
Camel. Ironically Peter's involvement with Naval Aviation subjects
originates from his involvement with and creation of a project for The
Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund in 1990 on the 50th anniversary of The
Battle of Britain.At
the time he created a number of paintings for a corporate calendar and
it was during the creation of the works that the Artist's
brother-in-law, then a Royal Navy Helicopter pilot, began a friendly
rebuke concerning the lack of artistic portrayal by Aviation Artists of
the heroic exploits of many brave naval pilots.Thus
is was that the Artist began research of naval aviation history which
inevitably led to this issue's subject matter, Commander Smart's Camel
from the1917 mission, and
an investigative sketch (visual) to explore the intrinsic nature of the
naval variant of the aeroplane and specifics relating to that
particular event, such as the absence of a Lewis Gun and the very
distinctive checkerboard markings on the engine cowl, characterisation
being a major aspect of the Artist's "style".The drawing is, of course, a preparatory work for a major oil painting that came later.
See it in this
Collector's Edition book
