In 1918, the Imperial War Museum, then just a year into its existence, asked Anna Airy (1882–1964) to paint a series of large works. The commission made the 36-year-old the UK’s first official female war artist.
Her contract included strict terms that were not placed on her male counterparts, such as the committee’s right to refuse work, or not pay for a work, if they so wished. Nevertheless, it was a groundbreaking moment for women who had always been excluded from these kinds of projects. Airy, a prize-winning artist who had been educated at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, created five huge seven-by-six-foot canvases of munitions factories.
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