War Memorials Committee (Royal Academy of Arts), 1918

Foundation date: March 1918

Function: Committee

Policy: The committee was formed in March 1918, in response to 'requests for advice from various quarters the Council of the Royal Academy has appointed a Committee to consider War Memorials.'
The committee made suggestions to artists who working on / considering working on was memorials. See 'Annual Report, 1918' (1919), p. 65.

The Committee clarified its role in January 1919, when it noted that 'it does not undertake to provide designs, or to send expert advisers to consult with Local Committees; but if they so desire, representatives of Such Committees can consult members of the Royal Academy Committee at Burlington House by arrangement with the Secretary.' See 'Annual Report, 1918' (1919), pp. 71-72.

Among the recommendations made were the following suggestions:

1. 'Designs should be obtained either by calling in a competent artist, or by competition [...]'

2 'The site of the memorial, especially if open, is of vital importance [...] In large towns, for instance, a memorial should not be so placed as to obstruct traffic; on the other hand, it should occupy a position sufficiently conspicuous to be worthy of its object.'

3. 'Where the memorial is to take the form of sculpture or architecture, the question of material should be determined (a) by the amount of money available, e.g. for bronze, marble, stone or wood; (b) by local considerations where these exist.'

4. In smaller towns or villages the setting of the memorial, the approaches to it, and its immediate surroundings should be carefully considered, and the cost of laying out the site, when necessary, should be included in the scheme.'

5. 'Where memorials are proposed for the interior of churches or public buildings, whether in sculpture, architecture, stained glass, mural paintings, votive pictures, tapestry Rolls of Honour, or wall tablets, careful regard should be paid to the scale and character of the architecture of the building and to any adjacent monument.'

6. 'The lettering of all inscriptions should be carefully studied, and should be legible. A bold Roman type, or Italian lettering of the 16th Century based on it, is the type most suitable.'

7. 'In all memorials simplicity, scale, and proportion should be aimed at rather than profusion of detail or excessive costliness of material. It is the imaginative and intellectual quality of the work that gives it its final value.'
See 'Annual Report, 1918' (1919), p. 66.

Citing this record

'War Memorials Committee (Royal Academy of Arts), 1918', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=ann_1277844017, accessed 29 May 2023]