The Runner

This work (also known as 'Character Study of the Runner') depicts a First World War battle scene, with a young soldier in uniform in the foreground crawling along the ground, in a war damaged landscape, with his left arm outstretched holding a note. He is lying in a battlefield with bombed buildings and explosions in the background. It demonstrates the peril that runners and soldiers alike faced during the course of the First World War. Charles Wheeler (1881-1977) was a painter and teacher, who studied at the National Gallery of Victoria School from 1898 to 1907. He enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers in 1914 and won the DCM at Vimy in 1916 and was severely wounded. He exhibited with the Royal Academy in London and at the Paris Salon after the First World War. Returning to Australia, he taught drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria School from 1927 until 1945 and at various schools.