Collection
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Title
The enemy in sight
1916
Artist
Septimus Power
Australia
31 Dec 1878 - 03 Jan 1951
About
'The enemy in sight' was one of three paintings Septimus Power exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1916. Painted before he was commissioned as an official war artist, it is an imaginative construction that owes as much to the heroic narratives of the popular press and the image of the bushman–soldier as it does to Power's genuine affinity with horsemanship.
The subject for one of the soldiers was Sergeant-Major BG Watts-Phillips of the 8th Light Horse Regiment, who was convalescing in London at the time. Adelaide's The Register said Watts-Phillips possessed 'not only a splendid type of manhood, but… the dramatic instinct'. Watts-Phillips assisted Power with wrangling the horses in his studio. Power worked on the picture for three months before Watts-Phillips returned to the front.
Details
Date
1916
Materials used
oil on canvas
Dimensions
148.0 x 224.5 cm stretcher
Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., "H. S. Power 1916".
Credit
Purchased 1916
Location
Not on display
Accession number
667
URL / Share
Septimus Power
The enemy in sight
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Exhibition history
150 years of Australian art (1938), National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 Jan 1938–25 Apr 1938
Mad through the darkness: Australian artists and the Great War, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Apr 2015–11 Oct 2015
Referenced in 2 publications
Bibliography
Nicolas Brasch, Horses in Australia: an illustrated history, 'Walers at war', pg. 98-117, Sydney, 2014, 107 (colour illus.).
Lionel Lindsay, 150 years of Australian art, Sydney, 1938. cat.no. 15 [Gallery No. 1]