How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

In April 1942, for his Official War Artist commission, David Bomberg spent a fortnight 90 feet underground in the vast bomb store of RAF Fauld, Burton-on-Trent, where he saw bombs being loaded on to racks, ready for use. His drawings evoked the unsettling atmosphere of this hazardous environment. However, nobody expected the catastrophic explosion - so far, the largest recorded in Britain - that occurred there two years later, killing 68 people (and 200 cattle from the farm above) and leaving a 100ft deep crater which remains there today. Although three drawings were accepted, Bomberg’s finished painting (later acquired for the Tate collection in 1993) was rejected by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, which regarded his non-figurative style inappropriate for making a clear record of war which the public, as exhibition audiences, could easily read.