Dorothy Annan (1900-1983), Sketch for Leamington Life, c. 1940

Sketch for Leamingtonian Life, c. 1940

 

Gouache on hardboard 

 

Given by Sebastian Tennant, 2021

 

Leamington Spa was one of the main bases for camouflage research during the Second World War and during the 1990s Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum began acquiring items relating to the work of camouflage staff.

 

During the Second World War, communal feeding stations, renamed British Restaurants by Winston Churchill, were set up throughout Britain to provide unrationed meals to those who had been bombed out, lost their ration books or been relocated for war work. In 1942, a group of artists, including Annan, painted a series of murals for Leamington’s British Restaurant to encourage a positive and uplifting atmosphere for customers. Annan’s sketch shows her design for the mural depicting a compressed townscape including Jephson Gardens and Royal Pump Rooms.