War
Above:
Horses – Victims of War [Detail of cat.27]
Opposite:
The Shell [Detail of cat.29]
Luard’s peaceful existence in Paris was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1914 and he soon enlisted, serving in the Army Services Corps with the British Expeditionary Force in France. He had a distinguished career in the army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and being awarded the DSO and the Croix de Guerre as well as being mentioned in dispatches five times. Although he would complain in letters that army life would allow him little time for art, he created a remarkable body of work on paper during the war. Many of these powerful drawings, strongly physical portrayals of the victims of war, whether his beloved working horse, or injured civilians or refugees, were exhibited at the time and bear labels which cite his parent’s address in Elm Road as his base. He also found time to execute a series of pochades of landscapes, amongst them records of the badly damaged townscape in and around Arras. In World War Two he spent time observing army mule gun teams training in Wales and worked up several other dramatic war works probably based on the memory of his own earlier experiences of conflict. 39
