Kawana hotel, leave hostel

Place Asia: Japan
Accession Number ART26949
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 40.6 x 73.8 cm; frame: 58.4 x 91.8 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on canvas
Maker Colville, George
Place made Japan
Date made 1950
Conflict British Commonwealth Occupation Force, 1946-1952 (Japan)
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

The Kawana Hotel at Izu, Japan, is a leave centre visited by members of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) and allied civilians. It was not until 1949-1950 that Colville became an official war artist. The Australian War Memorial facilitated Colville's joining the Australian troops occupying Japan. His project was to provide a record of the life and activities of the British Commonwealth Occupational Forces, which had been largely an Australian exercise. By the time Colville arrived in Japan, however, the Occupational Forces were being reduced; by June 1950 the remaining troops were sent to fight in the Korean War. Colville travelled with the troops, painting landscapes and scenes of Kure (near Hiroshima), Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama in his inimitable impressionistic style of oil painting. Colville depicted barracks and buildings occupied by the troops, as well as hospitals, hostels and press rooms. Colville also depicted local sites such as Mount Fiji and the Temple at Osaka and the war's aftermath - the bomb sites of Hiroshima and the ANZAC war graves.