It is appropriate that the central collection of the MOD should contain works of art depicting both twentieth century world wars. Activity during the 1939-45 war is widely represented, and again the concentration is on naval activity rather than on land campaigns.
The works of the War artists were presented to the Admiralty and to the War Office in 1946 by the War Artists Advisory Committee. The works of art shown here are all on display in various conference rooms and senior offices around Whitehall.
Roland Vivian Pitchforth was an official war artist, firstly, for the Ministry of Information, and then later for the Admiralty, under the aegis of the War Artists' Advisory Committee. In the early months of his appointment he painted coastal boats in action, and travelled on convoys to the Azores and Gibraltar.
Towards the end of the war, Pitchforth was sent out to the Far East, and witnessed the culmination of the Burma campaign.
As a temporary captain in the Royal Marines, he made numerous watercolours of Colombo Harbour in Ceylon, before joining the combined amphibious and airborne attack on Rangoon.
On his way to the Burmese capital with his commando unit, Pitchforth was asked to paint camouflage on to the amphibious craft, to minimise the threat of airborne attack, and this proved highly effective.
This watercolour is particularly interesting for its depiction of "dazzle" painting, a technique designed to disguise the hulls of ships and render them less visible as targets.
On 18 September 1940, the "Gloire" was intercepted by the British and brought to port in Casablanca, where she was neutralized. The artist was commissioned to observe the activity of the Royal Navy in and around the Mediterranean from 1940 to 1944.