Battle of Vimy Ridge

Among the first artists to interpret war as they truly saw it, they returned with stunning portrayals of death and suffering, much of it steeped in religious symbolism on themes of sacrifice.

Except for brief appearances around 1920, however, most of this art and subsequent works from the Second World War have been locked away, out of sight and far from the Canadian mind.

Now, 72 works by some of Canada's best-known artists -- Alex Colville, Charles Comfort and four Group of Seven painters among them -- have emerged from storage in a bus barn for a show at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Titled Canvas of War: Masterpieces from the Canadian War Museum, at least half have never been on public display before, says historian and war museum chief Jack Granatstein.

Granatstein's undersized and underfunded facility, currently located in a dark, cramped building that once housed the national archives, stores 13,000 paintings, 7,000 posters and 100 sculptures.

Granatstein has long lamented that Canadi

Brandon sought to balance the exhibition of familiar and unusual pieces along several themes, including art, war history, and the role of women and the homefront, all the while keeping the focus on people.

ans have neglected their history. The state of the war museum's multimillion-dollar art collection proves his case, he says.

And Jack Nichols' haunting portrait of a Drowning Sailor. He could have been anyone, but he was a German. Does it matter?

Certainly, the paintings are moving -- depictions of the sufferings of man, the indignities and horrors of war.

Brandon has included many works depicting women, including the pastoral Land Girls Hoeing by Manly MacDonald, and Armistice Day -- Munitions Centre, a colourful, flag-waving crowd celebrating the end of the First World War.

"I have never, ever not been moved by the collection I work with," says Brandon, who harbours her own memories of wartime London. "You don't become immune.

Some topics in this essay:
World War, Harold Beaumont's, Granatstein Granatstein's, Laura Brandon, War Museum, Matthew Brady, Gallery Canada, Lord Beaverbrook, Civilization Jan, Kennington's Conquerors, war museum, world war, canadian war museum, canadian war, -- image canadian, war art, art vault, image canadian, -- image, museum civilization, war museum's, image canadian war, canvas war,