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16 May 2017

Moira, Gerald, 1867-1959; War Workers, 1914-1918

The War Workers 1916 by Gerald Moira (1867-1959) is a large (60 inches across) oil painting which is at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, it was in the artist’s own collection and then presented to the museum in 1942. It’s romanticised of course, with the flowing uniforms and a background that could be straight out of The Pilgrim’s Progress; but a superb painting, particularly poignant in today’s political climate when we have to wake up to the fact that the UK’s Foreign Secretary is allowed to use terminology like ‘Brussels bleeding the UK white’. That is disgraceful –  yet perhaps typical of ‘the bully boys throwing buns’ (Central Hall, Westminster Convention last week). Apologies for bringing politics onto the Persephone Post yet again – but pictures of the First World War are something completely different from pictures of flowers or women reading books – they engender completely different emotions.

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