Image: Mabel May-Women Making Shells (CWM 19710261-0389)

Description: Mabel May was invited to paint a home-front composition by Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery and an active participant, with Sir Edmund Walker, in the employment of Canadian artists for the Canadian War Memorials Fund. "As you may know," he wrote, "the Canadian War Records is getting work done in Canada now, and several artists are working on some of the most interesting subjects connected with the war ... I have wondered whether you have seen anything of women's work in munition factories or aeroplane works that has struck you as a good subject for a picture! I remember work of yours which should make such a subject easy and interesting to you, and I should be very glad if you would let me know what you think of the matter or if it was worth while [sic] coming up here about it, to come and discuss the matter any time convenient to you. The way to manage the matter would be to decide on your subject or subjects and their size, which should not be small, six feet or so, and then suggest a price that would cover your studies and the finished picture. I would then formally commission the picture and you would go ahead. Painted by Mabel May in 1919. This painting captures what a female factory worker described as the avenues of clanking, grinding, clashing machines. Mabel May was one of four women artists commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund to depict female munitions workers. After visiting a factory in September 1918, May described her experiences as all desperately interesting. Montreal artist Mabel May used an impressionist technique to show women working in a munitions factory. The women in the painting were performing work of an untraditional nature.
Title: Women Making Shellslabel QS:Len,"Women Making Shells"
Credit: https://www.warmuseum.ca/collections/artifact/1013596
Author: Henrietta Mabel May
Permission: Work for the Canadian War Memorials Fund under the Canadian War Records Office, placing this work under crown copyright.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No