page_title: Barnett Freedman
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Barnett Freedman / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: A 9.2-inch Breech Loading (BL) gun in camouflaged gun emplacement at Grain Fort on the coast overlooking the Rivers Thames and Medway and manned by several soldiers.
context_page_description: Barnett Freedman CBE, RDI was a British painter, commercial designer, book illustrator, typographer, and lithographer.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of the Second World War, Freedman was appointed as a full-time salaried war artist by the War Artists' Advisory Committee and sent to France in April 1940 to record the work of the British Expeditionary Force. He painted a number of works there but was frustrated by a perceived lack of support, particularly transport provision. He was evacuated to England in May 1940 and worked on coastal defence subjects in Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey. His full-time contract with WAAC ended in February 1941 after which WAAC purchased individual pieces from him but also offered him several short-term contracts with the Admiralty. By July 1941, Freedman was on board HMS Repulse, and produced the painting 15-inch Gun Turret, HMS Repulse. The picture became a print, produced by the Baynard Press for the National Gallery. At the end of 1942 he began an album of portraits of aircraft factory workers and then spent time aboard HMS Tribune, which resulted in another album of portraits and the painting Interior of a Submarine(1943), which was briefly displayed at the National Gallery before being removed from view under wartime censorship regulations. The painting is now in the permanent collection of the Tate. In June 1944 Freedman went to Portsmouth, before travelling to France after the D-Day landings. There he recorded scenes around the landing beaches and at the invasion headquarters, but in July was taken ill and sent to hospital in Liverpool.
caption: The Gun (1940) (Art.IWM ART LD391)
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