Artists' images of war

• 

 

• 

 

• 

 

• 

 

• 

 

• 

 

• 

 

• 

Some of the most powerful images of war have been caught not on camera but on canvas.

The Imperial War Museum has a collection of artworks depicting scenes of conflict dating back to the early 20th century.

Many show the impact of war in human terms, both on fields of battle and back at home: in factories, towns and the countryside.

They serve to remind us that victory is never won solely by machines and strategies, but by ordinary men and women, struggling and sacrificing day after day.

This artwork, A Parachute Bomb, was painted by Matvyn Wright in 1941: a key year in the second world war, which Britain began almost alone against the Nazis, but ended in an alliance with the Soviet Union and the United States.