Interior of a Field Hospital Tent (circa 1918), circa 1918

Family of the Artist Olive Richards, Ontario Private Collection, Toronto Heffel Fine Art, auction, Toronto, 30 November 2017, lot 402 Private Collection, Toronto

During the First World War, John William Beatty was appointed official Canadian War Artist and was given the rank of captain with full military pay. Only three other artists were given this standing by the Canadian War Memorials Fund and they were Frederick Varley, Maurice Cullen, and Charles Simpson. Despite a slow start being confined to the Whitby base, close to Toronto, Cullen and Beatty were eventually sent to France where they sketched the Canadian front. Often working under German fire, the artists aimed to depict the horror, hope, and humanity of the War. Field sketches, like this one, were not returned to the Fund and, subsequently, ended up either lost or in various public or private collections. Beatty’s early works were characteristic of French and Dutch painting of the traditional school and focused on a grey and sombre palette. In contrast, “Interior of a Field Hospital Tent” is infused with ochres and mauves and violets. Through his association with the artists who were to become members of the Group of Seven, Beatty began to brighten his colours. What could have been a very dark interior is transformed with golds and pastel yellows as Beatty captures the bright sunlight filtering through the side and roof of the tent.