(Maurice) Denton Welch
1 portrait by (Maurice) Denton Welch







© National Portrait Gallery, London
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(Maurice) Denton Welch
by (Maurice) Denton Welch
oil on hardboard, circa 1940-1942
18 1/4 in. x 15 7/8 in. (476 mm x 403 mm)
Given by subscribers, 1958
Primary Collection
NPG 4080
Sitterback to top
- (Maurice) Denton Welch (1915-1948), Novelist and painter. Sitter in 1 portrait, Artist of 1 portrait.
Artistback to top
- (Maurice) Denton Welch (1915-1948), Novelist and painter. Artist of 1 portrait, Sitter in 1 portrait.
This portraitback to top
Welch's first vocation was painting, but after a serious bicycling accident in 1935, from which he never really recovered, he took up writing and was the author of poems, short stories and three largely autobiographical novels, Maiden Voyage (1943), In Youth is Pleasure (1945) and A Voice through a Cloud , the last, like his Journals, published posthumously (1950,52).
Linked publicationsback to top
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 649
- Tinker, Christopher, Speak its Name! - Quotations by and about Gay Men and Women, 2016, p. 120
Events of 1940back to top
Current affairs
Following the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and France, Neville Chamberlain resigns and Churchill is appointed Prime Minister making the famous speech: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.'The Battle of Britain ends the Phoney War with Germany's attack on the nation from the air. Britain's cities, airbases and ports are bombed during the Blitz.
Art and science
With little access to sculpture materials, and a bombed out studio Henry Moore starts experimenting with drawings of war subjects. After taking shelter in a London Underground station during an air raid Moore was inspired to begin a series of Shelter Drawings. With a commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee, headed by Kenneth Clark, these became some of the most popular example of official war art.International
Britain's attempt to defend France against German invasion by landing troops on the French coast ends in failure; France surrenders and Britain is left to face the Axis Powers alone. While the Dunkirk Landings were a failure, the heroic rescue of troops by a fleet of English civilian boats was a victory for morale, and the 'Dunkirk Spirit' came to stand as an emblem of British triumph in adversity.Tell us more back to top
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