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The art collection is rich in fine and graphic art and is especially strong in works commissioned for official purposes during two world wars. It is supported by an important archive of correspondence about these commissions, the War Artists' Archive.

'Ready to Start' by William Orpen

The Department of Art holds the majority of works commissioned under the official war artists scheme set up by the Government during the First World War. Begun in 1916 mainly for propaganda purposes, the scheme eventually aimed much higher; at the creation of a record and a memorial to the Great War through paintings commissioned from the best and, on occasion, the most avant-garde, British artists of the day. These included Percy Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash, CRW Nevinson, John Singer Sargent, Stanley Spencer and Sir William Orpen.

'Ruby Loftus' by Laura Knight

A similar scheme of official commissioning of artists to portray the war effort, administered by the War Artists Advisory Committee, was instigated at the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1946 one third of the collection was allocated to the Imperial War Museum. Over 300 artists were involved, including John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and Stanley Spencer on the home front and Anthony Gross, Edward Bawden and Edward Ardizzone overseas.

WW1 poster

The collection is particularly rich in European posters of the First World War and there is a substantial amount of British, Commonwealth and American material from the Second World War.

Posters of Conflict Digitisation Project
In 2002 Manchester Metropolitan University were awarded a grant to work with the Imperial War Museum on a three-year project to catalogue, digitally photograph and publish online 10,000 posters from the Museum's internationally important collection. This project was successfully concluded in 2006.

Posters from our collection can be viewed through the Museum’s Collections Online or at AHDS Visual Arts.  This includes our Spanish Civil War Posters, the largest public holding of such posters in the UK.

Contact details and visitor information for visitors to the Art collection.

Contemporary War Artists a guide to contemporary art commissions by the Imperial War Museum.

AHDS Visual Arts holds over 2000 images from the Art Collection - online search with images and caption information

More about the War Artists' Archive

Research Guidelines for students visiting the Art Department.

Mindata see their website for British 20th Century War Art - a microfiche record of the Imperial War Museum art collection.