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.

This watercolour is part of ‘Aerial Creatures’, the second exhibited series of work by Paul Nash on Air Ministry subjects commissioned through the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. The composition is based upon Nash's photograph of a partially covered Wellington bomber which he took when visiting an airfield (Tate Archive). In this series of works, he developed ideas about the ‘personalities of planes’, suggesting that machines were the ‘real protagonists’ of the war. He described the Wellington bomber as ‘very human in one way’ and resembling the whale. However, Nash's imaginative approach was not appreciated by the Air Ministry which preferred scenes that celebrated RAF heroes and faithfully recorded aircraft design and, therefore, terminated his contract.