To commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, we are pleased to present a special online exhibition of British wartime works.

The Normandy landings of 6 June, 1944, was the largest seaborne invasion in history, and together with the associated airborne operations, it marked the beginning of the liberation of France and western Europe. This selection includes a study of the landings by Stephen Bone (1904-1958), who witnessed and sketched the operations from the beach as part of his activities as an Official War Artist. Related works by the artist can be found in the Government Art Collection.

The exhibition also features images of other seabornes conflicts, including an important cartoon for Muirhead Bone’s (1876-1953) seminal painting of a minesweeper at work in stormy seas – Winter-Mine Laying off Iceland, 1942 (collection of the Imperial War Museum) – as well as Leslie Carr’s dramatic convoy of merchant ships, barrage balloons, and a Dazzle-camouflage Destroyer.