01 Work, The Art of War, Khawla bint al-Azwar, Arab Muslim warrior in the service of the Rashidun Caliphate, with footnotes

Henry Zaidan
Khawla bint al-Azwar, c. 2024
AI Image with Deviant Art

Due to religious dictates it is very difficult to find classical Islamic art portraying people! To tell the story I have decided to try and make my own through AI. I hope I will eventually get it right! Thanks for your patience.

The Rashidun Caliphate was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his death in 632 CE. During its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in West Asia and Northeast Africa. More on The Rashidun Caliphate

Khawla bint al-Azwar (died 639), was an Arab Muslim warrior in the service of the Rashidun Caliphate. She played a major role in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, and fought alongside her brother Dhiraar. She has been described as one of the greatest female soldiers in history. She was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad.

Born sometime in the seventh century as the daughter of Azwar al Asadi, one of the chiefs of the Banu Assad tribe, Khawlah was well known for her bravery in campaigns of the Muslim conquests in parts of the Levant. She fought side by side with her brother Dhiraar in many battles, including the decisive Battle of Yarmouk in 636 against the Byzantine Empire. On the 4th day of the battle she led a group of women against the Byzantine army and defeated its chief commander, and later was wounded during her fight with a Greek soldier. More on Khawla bint al-Azwar




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01 Works The Art of War, Wissam Al Jazairi's Lampedusa and Refugees, with footnotes

Wissam Al Jazairi
Lampedusa and Refugees, c. 2012
Mixed Media on canvas
120x100 cm
© Syria.Art Facebook page
I have no further description, at this time


Lampedusa, Italy — The small harbor in Lampedusa is crowded with a fleet of dilapidated wooden and metal smuggler's boats, some half-submerged. Discarded life jackets, filthy clothes and plastic water bottles float in the sea.

Nearly 2,000 migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean this year. Lampedusa is the closest piece of European territory to North Africa, so many migrants who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean land there first. It is the gateway to Europe. More on Lampedusa and Refugee

Wissam al-Jazairy is a young artist who was born in Midan, Damascus in 1990. He began his study of graphic design at the University of New Bulgaria in 2008, and graduated in 2011

The paintings of al-Jazairy reflect the story of an artists who merged into the pain of his people, and constantly tries to represent the oppressed, marginalized and detainees, so their voices can be heard. Consequently, he participated in several exhibitions in America, Egypt, Britain and Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland to support the peaceful democratic movement in Syria. while in Syria, a number of his works have been transformed into graffiti, sprayed by Syrians onto the walls of their cities, including the city of Saraqeb, Idlib.

In the midst of war, Wissam never forgot about hope and love. In one painting, love symbols are flying out of the houses of the city, it’s like the souls of lovers are defying air raids and missiles. In another painting and in response to the cover of The Economist, which portrayed the name of Syria colored black while fading and demolishing gradually by self-destruction, the young artist completed the picture by adding Syrians rebuilding their homeland’s name with new shiny colors.

“I dream of a free, independent and democratic Syria, where citizenship and justice are the basis of governance, and peace is the spoken language”. More on Wissam al-Jazairy




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02 Works, The Art of War, Alexander Bubnov and Adolphe Yvon's The Battle of Kulikovo, with footnotes

Alexander Bubnov
Morning on Kulikovo Field, c.1943 1947
Oil on canvas
96,1х186,3
The State Tretyakov Picture Gallery in Moscow

Valued at 1500000-2500000 rub. in April 2024

The moment before the Battle of Kulikovo, on September 8, 1380, against the Mongolian golden horde, Russian forces lined up and in arms, led by Dimitri IV Donskoi (1350-1389).

Alexander Bubnov was a Soviet painter, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1954), winner of the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1948). Bubnov created his paintings in a difficult time for creative people.

Bubnov was born on February 20 (March 4), 1908 in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia). In 1919, he studied at the art school in Atkarsk, Saratov province. After the school was closed because of the Civil War, he continued to draw privately with the school teacher N.Ya. Fedorov. But he still managed to enter the best at that time Moscow Art University.

In 1930, 22-year-old future artist went to build the famous Kuznetskostroy, where he worked as a junior architect. After returning to Moscow two years later, he continued to paint. From that time, he began to work very hard.

During the Great Patriotic War, he worked a lot on agitation posters, made drawings for magazines and leaflets. Alexander Pavlovich was very fond of graphics. The artist made very interesting illustrations for Alexander Pushkin’s poems, Nikolai Gogol’s stories. While creating a modern film Taras Bulba make-up artist took the image created by A. Bubnov for the main character.

His Eastern paintings are a real riot of colors, and you can even study oriental ethnography looking at them. Using bright colors Bubnov wanted to understand and express new and important aspects of the life of the people.

In the Soviet era Bubnov was known, mainly, only as a master of historical painting, but he was a versatile artist, a wonderful landscape painter.

Alexander Bubnov died in 1964 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. More on Alexander Bubnov

Adolphe Yvon  (1817–1893)
The Battle of Kulikovo, c. 1849
Oil on canvas
Grand Kremlin Palace

Dmitri Donskoy in the thick of the fray

Adolphe Yvon (1817-1893) was a French painter renowned for his works depicting historical and military scenes. Born in Eschviller, Lorraine, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under the tutelage of Paul Delaroche. Yvon quickly gained a reputation for his exceptional talent in depicting historical battles and figures, rooting his style in realism and romanticism.

His career took off after his stay in Russia between 1843 and 1848, where he was invited to teach at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. On his return to France, Yvon was entrusted with numerous official commissions, notably for works intended to adorn public buildings and palaces. 

Yvon played an important role in art education, serving as a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he trained a generation of artists who would become influential in their own right. His teaching methodology and his works had a significant impact on the development of French art in the 19th century, particularly in the field of historical and military painting.

Adolphe Yvon died in Paris in 1893, leaving behind a lasting legacy as one of France's most important historical and military painters. More on Adolphe Yvon



The Battle of Kulikovo was fought between the forces of Mamai, a powerful Mongol military commander of the Golden Horde, and Russian forces led by Grand Prince Dmitry of Moscow. The battle took place on 8 September 1380, at Kulikovo Field near the Don River (now Tula Oblast, Russia) and was won by Dmitry, who became known as Donskoy ("of the Don") after the battle.

Although the victory did not end Mongol domination over Russia, it is traditionally regarded as the turning point at which Mongol influence began to wane and Moscow's power began to rise. The battle would allow Moscow to strengthen its claims of ascendancy over the other Russian principalities, in which it would ultimately become the centre of a centralized Russian state

The victory at Kulikovo is commemorated in Russia as a Day of Military Honour. More on The Battle of Kulikovo




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02 Works, The Art of War, Maxwell, Edward Burra's Wake and Soldiers at Rye, with footnotes

Edward Burra 1905–1976
Soldiers at Rye, c. 1941
Gouache, watercolour and ink on paper
1022 × 2070 mm
Tate

Rye, a picturesque town near the south coast of England, was Burra’s life-long home. During the war it became a centre for military activity. Soldiers are turned into nightmarish birdmen, recalling the Surrealist paintings of German artist Max Ernst. Burra was also interested in sixteenth-century English poetry. The bright colours and stylised dress of the soldiers might suggest courtly combat. Such ideas of brutality and heroism are offset by an emphasis of the figures’ musculature, introducing a sexual tension to the scene.  More on this painting

Edward Burra 1905–1976
Detail; Wake
Gouache and watercolour on paper
1022 × 698 mm
Tate

With the increasingly belligerent political situation of the 1930s, Burra's work took on a darker tone. This enigmatic diptych seems to speak of morbidity and decay. The shrouded figures look down on a skeleton in an open grave. In the background broken columns indicate the degradation of the building. The architecture recalls the destroyed churches that Burra photographed in Spain in 1935 and 1936.  More on this painting

Edward Burra was a watercolourist, draughtsman, printmaker and designer.

He was born of wealthy parents in [?] South Kensington, London. Because of illness (he was crippled with arthritis throughout his life) he had little formal education but from the age of 14 was able to concentrate on drawing. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art, 1921-3 and at the Royal College of Art 1923-4. His first one-man exhibition was at the Leicester Galleries in 1929; member of Unit One, 1933 and exhibited with the English Surrealists in 1936 and 1938. Inspite of ill health he travelled extensively in Europe, USA and Mexico. He also designed for the stage, with sets for the Camargo Society's ballet 'Rio Grande' 1931 and for Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells productions including 'Miracle of the Gorbals'. ARA 1963. CBE 1971. A retrospective exhibition held at the Tate Gallery in 1973. He lived near Rye, Sussex and died in Hastings in 1976. More on Edward Burra




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01 Work, The Art of War, Domenick D’Andrea's Battle of Long Island, with footnotes

Domenick D’Andrea
Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, c. 2004
National Guard Bureau

Colonel Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, father of Robert E. Lee, once commented that during the war "the state of Delaware furnished one regiment only; and certainly no regiment in the army surpassed it in soldiership." 

At the Battle of Long Island, the actions of the Delaware Regiment kept the American defeat from becoming a disaster. Indeed, the soldiers from tiny Delaware, fighting alongside the 1st Maryland Regiment, may well have prevented the capture of the majority of Washington's army, an event which might have ended the colonial rebellion then and there. 

Organized in January, 1776 by Colonel John Haslet, the Delaware Regiment was noteworthy from the start as the best uniformed and equipped regiment of the Continental Army. Their blue jackets with red facings and white waistcoat and breeches would later become the uniform for all the Continental troops. 

During the Battle of Long Island, the Delaware and Maryland troops were positioned on the right of Washington's line, defending the most direct route from the British landing site in south Brooklyn to the American fortifications in Brooklyn Heights. Though they faced the fiercest fighting of the day, they held their ground, allowing the remainder of Washington's army to retreat to the safety of the fortifications. When they in turn were outflanked and forced to retreat, the Delaware Regiment conducted an orderly retreat through marshland and across the Gowanus creek, carrying off with them 23 prisoners. Two nights later, Washington entrusted his Delaware and Maryland soldiers to be the rear guard as he secretly withdrew his army from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Today. More on Battle of Long Island

Domenick D’Andrea has illustrated covers for many history and adventure books. He specializes in illustrating stories about the West—especially horse stories. Mr. D’Andrea lives in Stratford, Connecticut. More on Domenick D’Andrea




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02 Works, The Art of War, Eric Kennington's Bantam Hercules and Raider with a Cosh, with footnotes

Eric Kennington 1888–1960
A Bantam Hercules, c. 1917
Charcoal on paper
762 × 483 mm
Tate

This drawing was reproduced in a volume called British Artists at the Front published in 1918.

The accompanying commentary noted that, at the beginning of the first world war, army recruits under 5 feet 2 inches tall were rejected. But ‘in the factory districts of Lancashire and Cheshire, the average stature is lower’. The desire to volunteer for the army was so strong that men between 5 feet and 5 feet 2 inches tall were recruited for ‘Bantam’ battalions. Kennington selected this man for ‘his exceptional strength and vitality’. Gallery label, December 2004

Eric Kennington 1888–1960
Raider with a Cosh, c. 1917
Pastel on paper
629 × 470 mm
Tate

A Cosh is a small well-made leather bound baton comprising spring body and weighted slightly bulbous head; the cosh is entirely covered in light tan finished leather.

The Cosh is associated with the Second World War experiences (in North Africa and Palestine) of Sergeant Kenneth Merton, who served with the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC). The weapon is believed to have been used unofficially for personal protection and to discourage intruders in camp and tent lines. More on the Cosh

Eric Henri Kennington (12 March 1888 – 13 April 1960) was an English sculptor, artist and illustrator, and an official war artist in both of the world wars.

As a war artist, Kennington specialised in depictions of the daily hardships endured by soldiers and airmen. In the inter-war years he worked mostly on portraits and a number of book illustrations. The most notable of his book illustrations were for T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Kennington was also a gifted sculptor, best known for his 24th Division War Memorial in Battersea Park, for his work on the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and for the effigy of Lawrence at Wareham in Dorset. More on Eric Henri Kennington




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09 Works, The Art of War, Maxwell, Donald's British Navy in Palestine, 1st World War, with footnotes

The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revolt in opposition to the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It started with an Ottoman attempt at raiding the Suez Canal in 1915 and ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Ottoman Syria. More on The Sinai and Palestine campaign

Maxwell, Donald
British Monitors off the Coast of Palestine (M31)
Ink
Height 184 mm, Width 190 mm
Imperial War Museums

Two Royal Navy monitors in the water, with one in the right foreground shown from the port side and another immediately in front of the first, also shown from the port side. There is another vessel, possibly another monitor, in the left background.

Maxwell, Donald
Monitor 31 Bombarding Gaza
Watercolour
Height 228 mm, Width 349 mm
Imperial War Museums

A port side view of a Royal Navy monitor bombarding the city of Gaza from coastal waters. There are other ships to the right and the coastline is visible in the background to the left. Smoke emanates from the ship's funnel and front gun turret.

HMS M31 was an M29-class monitor of the Royal Navy. Launched on 24 June 1915, she was completed in July 1915. Upon completion, HMS M31 was sent to the Mediterranean, and remained there until March, 1919.

In 1916, she defended the port city of Yanbo, in Saudi Arabia, against the Turkish army by providing artillery cover for the Arab rebels.  She served from May to September 1919 in support of British and White Russian forces in the White Sea, before returning to England. More on HMS M31

Maxwell, Donald
Another Samson at the Gates of Gaza : a seaplane incident: Commander Samson, RNAS at Gaza
Watercolour
Height 292 mm, Width 406 mm
Imperial War Museums

A distant aircraft under anti-aircraft above a landscape of local houses and trees.

Maxwell, Donald
The Streets of Askelon: The Strand
Watercolour
Height 184 mm, Width 298 mm
Imperial War Museums

Two Royal Navy sailors manoeuvre a small rowing boat on the shore of a beach, with another sailor signalling with flags to men standing at the top of a headland. Along the coast are some of the ancient stone ruins of the city of Askalon, with some wooden struts protruding from the small cliff to the right.

Ashkelon is a coastal city in the Southern District of Palestine on the Mediterranean coast, 50 kilometres south of Tel Aviv, and 13 kilometres north of the border with the Gaza Strip

The Palestinian city, then known as Migdal, was founded in 1949 approximately 4 km inland from ancient Ascalon at the Palestinian town of al-Majdal. Its inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians and the area had been allocated to the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; on the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands more Palestinian refugees from nearby villages. The town was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time much of the Arab population had fled, leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of which 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948 and most of the rest were deported by 1950. Today, the city's population is almost entirely Jewish. More on Ashkelon

Maxwell, Donald
The Wells at Samaria
Indian troops fetching water during the advance
Watercolour
Height 184 mm, Width 298 mm
Imperial War Museums

Indian Army troops collect water from a series of old wells in Samaria. The wells and the surrounding walls appear to date from ancient times, and steps lead up to ground level in the background, with horse-drawn transport waiting above.

Two Indian cavalry divisions (4th Cavalry Division and 5th Cavalry Division) transferred from France in 1918, for service in Palestine. 

The Indian Army, also called the British Indian Army, was involved in World War I as part of the British Empire. More than one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom more than 60,000 died during the war. More on Indian troops

Jacob's Well, also known as The Wells at Samaria, is a Christian holy site located in Balata village, a suburb of the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank. The well, currently situated inside an Eastern Orthodox church and monastery, has been associated in religious tradition with the biblical patriarch Jacob for roughly two millennia.

The well is named in the New Testament Gospel of John as the scene of Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman. More on The Wells at Samaria


Maxwell, Donald
Nablous
Australian cavalry entering the ancient Shechem, the capital of Samaria
Watercolour
Height 279 mm, Width 444 mm
Imperial War Museums

A column of Australian cavalry gallops along a road in a valley floor into the small town of Shechem. The rear of the column is in the foreground, with the front of it just entering the town, whose buildings are visible in the distance. The valley is bordered, on the left and right, by steep-sided hills.

Maxwell, Donald
The Church at Kuryet-el-Enab
used temporarily as a hospital
Watercolour
Height 419 mm, Width 266 mm
Imperial War Museums

The interior of a church requisitioned as a hospital. In the foreground two men sit on stretchers talking to one another. To the right, two stretcher bearers lower a stretcher onto the church floor. Other men are visible further back, with the altar and a bright stained-glass window in the background.

Kuryet-el-Enab is located in one of the earliest areas of human habitation in Palestine. Archaeological excavations have revealed three Neolithic settlement phases, the middle phase is dated to the 7th millennium BCE. 

Donald Maxwell (1877-1936) was a painter, etcher and illustrator, born in Clapham, south London the son of a Methodist minister. Maxwell studied at Clapham School of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art, and the Royal College of Art all towards the close of the 19th century. After his marriage in 1907, he and his wife resided on a yacht moored on the River Thames before relocating to Rochester, Kent. He soon began writing and illustrating extensively for The Yachting Monthly and other magazines and in 1909, he came to the public's attention with his dramatic sketch, 'The Battle Fleet off Southend', published by the Daily Graphic in 1909. He thereafter embarked on a career as a naval artist and correspondent and became a regular correspondent for the Daily Graphic and the weekly illustrated paper The Graphic continuing to do so until the latter's closure in the 1930's. During World War I was an Official War Artist attached to the Admiralty, visiting Palestine and Mesopotamia. He accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour of India and illustrated The Prince of Wales' Eastern Book and wrote and illustrated many books on travel and topography and also received poster commissions from Southern Railways. He showed at the Royal Academy, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts and at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Examples of his work are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. More on Donald Maxwell

Carline, Sydney William
Study for 'The Sea of Galilee'
Aeroplanes attacking Turkish Boats
Watercolour
Height 233 mm, Width 280 mm
Imperial War Museums

An aerial view of the Sea of Galilee, flanked by hills on the right-hand shore, the river Jordan on the lower left and a snow-capped Mount Hermon rising above clouds in the upper right of the composition. There are two aircraft on the left, and another flying directly above the lake over three small, dark shapes of Turkish motorboats moving on the water below. Grey puffs of smoke hang in the sky to the left and upper left. 

Sydney William Carline (14 August 1888 – 14 February 1929) was a British artist and teacher known for his depictions of aerial combat painted during World War One.

Sydney William Carline studied under his father, the painter George Francis Carline (1855-1920); at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London from 1907 to 1910; and in Paris. He subsequently worked as a painter, sculptor and medallist. During World War One, he served as a despatch rider before becoming a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. Like his younger brother, the painter Richard Carline (1896-1980), he was also appointed an Official War Artist attached to the Royal Air Force. In 1922 he was elected a member of the London Group with whom he exhibited from 1922 to 1929. He also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, Goupil Gallery, London Salon, New English Art Club, and Royal Academy in London; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Manchester City Art Gallery; and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. More on Sydney William Carline

Stuart Reid (NZ/British/Aust., 1883-1971)
A Handley Page Aeroplane Bombing Nablus by Night
Oil on canvas
Height 698 mm, Width 939 mm
Imperial War Museums

A night scene showing a Handley Page bomber flying over a darkened landscape. A thick column of smoke rises from the ground below mingling with the low cloud cover.

The Battle of Nablus took place, together with the Battle of Sharon during the set piece Battle of Megiddo between 19 and 25 September 1918 in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting took place in the Judean Hills where the British Empire's XX Corps attacked the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group's Seventh Army defending their line in front of Nablus. More on The Battle of Nablus

In 1909 Reid, Stuart went to London to study art. During WWI he served in Gallipoli and Sinai with the Scottish Light Horse before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in Palestine. He continued to sketch and paint, and was a friend of Colonel T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia. During this time Reid was commissioned to paint a number of works for the British Imperial War Museum. In 1922 he returned to New Zealand. He later settled in Sydney. More on Reid, Stuart




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01 Work, The Art of War, Elizabeth Butler's The Remnants of an Army, with footnotes

Elizabeth Butler (Lady Butler)
The Remnants of an Army, c. 1879
Oil paint on canvas
1321 × 2337 mm
Tate

Elizabeth Butler represents the defeat of the British in the First Afghan War (1839–1842), when they failed to overthrow the Afghan leader Dōst Moammad Khān. Doctor William Brydon, believed to be the sole survivor of the British forces, reaches the British garrison at Jalalabad, ‘faint and reeling on his jaded horse’ against a dying light’. Butler was the leading battle painter in Europe, famous for depicting soldiers fighting at the edge of Empire, rather than the military elite. Butler’s family benefitted from Empire, but her circle was anti-imperial. This painting was made during the Second Afghan War, and offers a critique of that war. More on this painting

Elizabeth Southerden Thompson (3 November 1846 – 2 October 1933), later known as Lady Butler, was a British painter who specialised in painting scenes from British military campaigns and battles, including the Crimean War and the Napoleonic Wars. Her notable works include The Roll Call (purchased by Queen Victoria), The Defence of Rorke's Drift, and Scotland Forever! (showing the Scots Greys at Waterloo). She wrote about her military paintings in an autobiography published in 1922: "I never painted for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism." She was married to British Army officer William Butler, becoming Lady Butler after he was knighted. More on Elizabeth Butler (Lady Butler)




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04 Works, The Art of War, Maxwell, Donald's British Navy in Syria, 1st World War, with footnotes

Maxwell, Donald
The Headquarters of the Hedjaz Army, Damascus, c. 1918
Watercolour
Height 254 mm, Width 387 mm
Imperial War Museums

A street scene with a crowd of men in Arab dress and horses standing outside a building with a white stucco facade. There are other figures sitting on the floor in the left foreground just outside the crowd.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz was a state in the Hejaz region of Western Asia that included the western portion of the Arabian Peninsula that was ruled by the Hashemite dynasty. It was self-proclaimed as a kingdom in June 1916 during the First World War, to be independent from the Ottoman Empire, on the basis of an alliance with the British Empire to drive the Ottoman Army from the Arabian Peninsula during the Arab Revolt. More on The Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz

Maxwell, Donald
A Seaplane flying over Damascus
Watercolour
Height 254 mm, Width 336 mm
Imperial War Museums

An aerial view of a seaplane flying over a distant landscape with Damascus below.

Maxwell, Donald
Australian Light Horse at Damascus
Watercolour
Height 285 mm, Width 450 mm
Imperial War Museums

Five troopers of the Australian Light Horse sit slumped on a wooden bench in the shade next to the wall of a building. To the right numerous horses are grazing on the flat ground of a valley, with some of the buildings on the outskirts of Damascus visible beyond. A rocky hill lines the horizon.

In 1918, 12,000 Australian Light Horsemen advanced across the Middle East, covering nearly 450 miles of treacherous desert and mountains. After twelve days the Great Ride climaxed in the taking of the city of Damascus. The Ride was praised as ‘The greatest exploit in the history of horsed cavalry…’. More on Australian Light Horsemen

Maxwell, Donald
Hodson's Horse at Aleppo
Encamped about a mile from the town, on the Alexandretta Road
Watercolour
Height 285 mm, Width 450 mm
Imperial War Museums

Troopers of the Indian Army cavalry unit Hodson's Horse stand and sit amongst tents on the outskirts of Aleppo in Syria. Their tents are arranged in a long line, with their horses grazing behind and the buildings and citadel of Aleppo visible in the background.

Hodson's Horse was a British regiment created during the Indian Mutiny in 1857. This irregular light cavalry of two thousand horses was named after its leader, Major William Stephen Raikes Hodson (1821-1858). The regiment included British military officers as well as native soldiers, many of whom were Sikhs from the region of Punjab.

Hodson's Horse regiment, under General Allenby, swept on into Syria, occupying Damascus, Beirut and, on 25 October, Aleppo. A composite squadron from each regiment took part in a formal and official march through Damascus on 2 October. It was intended as a show of force rather than a triumphal entry. More on Hodson's Horse at Aleppo

Donald Maxwell (1877-1936) was a painter, etcher and illustrator, born in Clapham, south London the son of a Methodist minister. Maxwell studied at Clapham School of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art, and the Royal College of Art all towards the close of the 19th century. After his marriage in 1907, he and his wife resided on a yacht moored on the River Thames before relocating to Rochester, Kent. He soon began writing and illustrating extensively for The Yachting Monthly and other magazines and in 1909, he came to the public's attention with his dramatic sketch, 'The Battle Fleet off Southend', published by the Daily Graphic in 1909. He thereafter embarked on a career as a naval artist and correspondent and became a regular correspondent for the Daily Graphic and the weekly illustrated paper The Graphic continuing to do so until the latter's closure in the 1930's. During World War I was an Official War Artist attached to the Admiralty, visiting Palestine and Mesopotamia. He accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour of India and illustrated The Prince of Wales' Eastern Book and wrote and illustrated many books on travel and topography and also received poster commissions from Southern Railways. He showed at the Royal Academy, Manchester Academy of Fine Arts and at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Examples of his work are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. More on Donald Maxwell



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