page_title: Norman Wilkinson (artist)
section_title: Second World War camouflage
hierarchical_section_title: Norman Wilkinson (artist) / Second World War camouflage
caption_attribution_description: English: A Few Careless Words May End in this whole: the image occupies the upper three-quarters. The title is separate and positioned in the lower quarter, in grey. The text is separate and placed across the bottom edge, in black. The title and text are set against a white background. image: a steamer sinks, aft first, in choppy water, with black smoke rising from its funnel. From a lifeboat in the foreground right, the ship's crew stare back at the stricken vessel. text: NORMAN WILKINSON A FEW CARELESS WORDS MAY END IN THIS - Many lives were lost in the last war through careless talk Be on your guard! Don't discuss movements of ships or troops Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London. T 51 - 5667.
context_page_description: Norman Wilkinson CBE RI was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur. Wilkinson invented dazzle painting to protect merchant shipping during the First World War.
context_section_description: During the Second World War, Wilkinson was again assigned to camouflage, not in dazzle-painting ships (which had fallen out of favour) but with the British Air Ministry, where his primary responsibility was the concealment of airfields. He also travelled extensively to sketch and record the work of the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy and Coastal Command throughout the war. An exhibition of 52 of the resulting paintings, The War at Sea, was shown at the National Gallery in September 1944. It included nine paintings of the D-Day landings, which Wilkinson had witnessed from HMS Jervis, plus naval actions such as the sinking of the Bismarck. The exhibition toured Australia and New Zealand in 1945 and 1946. The War Artists' Advisory Committee bought one painting from Wilkinson; he donated the other 51 paintings to the Committee.
caption: A Few Careless Words May End in this, Government poster of the Second World War
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