Anzac looking south

Depicts a panoramic view of the battlefield and general view of Anzac area at Gallipoli, looking south. Benson did reconnaissance sketches for the First Division on the Gallipoli Peninsula from April to September 1915 and this work may have been based on these sketches. It was one of a number of works painted by Benson at the St. John's Wood Studio in London after the First World War and was previously titled 'Gallipoli Peninsula'.

George Courtney Benson (1886-1960) was a painter and muralist. He studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne from 1903 and later worked for the 'Bulletin' in Sydney, then as an illustrator and cartoonist for Melbourne 'Punch'. As a result of his drawings at Gallipoli and in France during the First World War, he was appointed official war artist in 1918. He served with the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade and from June 1916 was with the British Expeditionary Forces in France. After the war, he continued to work for the War Records Section and returned to Melbourne in 1919 to complete works for the War Memorial and spent the next decade painting watercolour landscapes and working as a book illustrator. In 1931 he moved to Western Australia to undertake work on murals. Benson enlisted in the Australian Citizens Military Forces from 1940 to 1943, working in camouflage.