page_title: Cecil Aldin
section_title: World War One
hierarchical_section_title: Cecil Aldin / World War One
caption_attribution_description: English: A Land Girl Ploughing image: A scene showing two grey horses harnessed to a plough being driven by a Land Girl, moving from right to left of the composition. Beyond the girl is a view of the distant countryside. A storm is brewing in the grey sky above their heads.
context_page_description: Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life. Aldin executed village scenes and rural buildings in chalk, pencil and also wash sketching. He was an enthusiastic sportsman and a Master of Fox Hounds, and many of his pictures illustrated hunting. Aldin's early influences included Randolph Caldecott and John Leech.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of the First World War Aldin was the sole Master of the South Berkshire Foxhounds and became a Remount Purchasing Officer in charge of an Army Remount Depot. A number of other artists, including  Lionel Edwards, Alfred Munnings G.D. Armour and Cedric Morris, also worked in Remount Depots during the War. Such was the military demand for horses Aldins' own mounts were among the first to be given up to the Army. Aldin set up a number of Remount Depots around Berkshire including, as an experiment, one run entirely by women as there were no longer enough men available for the work. The experiment was deemed successful and a number of Ladies' Army Remount Depots were established. This brought Aldin to the attention of the Women's Work Sub-Committee of the newly formed Imperial War Museum who, in February 1919, asked to purchase two of his wartime paintings. Women Employed in the Remount Depot, The Kennels, Pangbourne was duly purchased but Aldin was unwilling to release the second picture requested. The original of A Land Girl Ploughing, a realistic portrayal of a lone Land Girl guiding two large horses, had been done on old, re-used canvas using leftover scene paint and, in Aldin's view, was not suitable for a national collection. He agreed to replicate the painting with better quality materials and a member of the Women's Land Army was sent to his studio in Pangbourne to model as the plough girl, and ensure all the details of the uniform were correct. The painting is considered among the most iconic images of the work of the Women's Land Army from World War One. Aldin lost his son, Dudley at Vimy Ridge in 1917, which affected him deeply for many years and had a profound effect on his style of work.
caption: A Land Girl Ploughing (1918)(Art.IWM ART 2618)
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