As part of itsWorld War I commemorations, Manchester Cathedral is honoured to present ‘The Soldier’s Story’, by Liverpool artists Anthony and Lorraine Brown.
The exhibition consists of three major artworks and includes canvases upon which visitors can record their responses to the paintings and read the responses of others.
The centrepiece of this exhibition is a moving portrait of Wilfred Owen, soldier and First World War poet. Owen’s handwritten letters and poems form the backdrop of an oil painting detailing a ‘diary’ of his life and presenting an honest and powerful view of the enormity of war and its impact on the individual, the family, and everyday lives.

 Wilfred Owen enlisted in October 1915 and served first in the Artists’ Rifles Officers’ Training Corps and later in the Manchester Regiment. He was concussed and suffered ‘trench-fever’ whilst fighting in the Somme, and spent part of 1917 recuperating at Craiglockart War Hospital, near Edinburgh. There he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon whose poems also lament the waste of war. Sassoon recognised and encouraged Owen’s talent. 

 When Owen returned to the Western Front, after more than a year away, he took part in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in October 1918 and was awarded the Military Cross for his courage and leadership. However, he was killed soon afterwards, on 4 November 1918, during the battle to cross the canal at Ors. Poignantly, his parents received the notice of his death on Armistice Day.

And of my weeping something has been left,

Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,

The pity of war, the pity war distilled. (“Strange Meeting”)

The exhibition runs 25 September 2015 – 29 November 2015 (On display during opening hours)

 

 

The centrepiece of this exhibition is a moving portrait of Wilfred Owen, soldier and First World War poet. Owen’s handwritten letters and poems form the backdrop of an oil painting detailing a ‘diary’ of his life and presenting an honest and powerful view of the enormity of war and its impact on the individual, the family, and everyday lives.

 

Wilfred Owen enlisted in October 1915 and served first in the Artists’ Rifles Officers’ Training Corps and later in the Manchester Regiment. He was concussed and suffered ‘trench-fever’ whilst fighting in the Somme, and spent part of 1917 recuperating at Craiglockart War Hospital, near Edinburgh. There he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon whose poems also lament the waste of war. Sassoon recognised and encouraged Owen’s talent. 

 

When Owen returned to the Western Front, after more than a year away, he took part in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in October 1918 and was awarded the Military Cross for his courage and leadership. However, he was killed soon afterwards, on 4 November 1918, during the battle to cross the canal at Ors. Poignantly, his parents received the notice of his death on Armistice Day.

 

And of my weeping something has been left,

Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,

The pity of war, the pity war distilled. (“Strange Meeting”)

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