Study for 'Concert in a hospital ward, England'

Places
Accession Number ART13340
Collection type Art
Measurement unframed: 23.4 x 34.7 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on plywood
Maker Crozier, Frank
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne
Date made 1936
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Depicts a concert being given by a pianist, a harp player and a cello player in a hospital ward in England. Nurses and patients are gathered around. Frank Rossiter Crozier (1883–1948) was an official war artist who served with the war records section. He studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in 1907 and was a member of the Charterisville artists' colony in Heidelberg. Crozier was a soldier with the Australian Imperial Force after enlisting in March 1915, where he served in the 22nd Battalion in Egypt and on the Gallipoli peninsula. Whilst at Gallipoli, he was approached (with other soldiers Ted Colles, Otho Hewitt, Cyril Leyshon and David Barker) by C.E.W. Bean to help illustrate the 'Anzac Book'. His artistic talent was noted by Bean, who recommended Crozier be appointed an official war artist. Crozier served in France in 1917, notably in the area around Pozieres but it was only in 1918 that he was made an official war artist. Where other war artists were civilians who were attached to the army and given honorary rank, Frank Crozier was already a serving soldier, and so his contributions were part of his military duties.