Artist Rosemary Allan: Making dresses for the Red Cross, c. 1944

Artist Rosemary Allan (1911-2008): Making dresses for the Red Cross, c. 1944

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Rosemary Allan (1911-2008):
Making dresses for the Red Cross, c. 1944
Framed (ref: 4613)

Signed, dated and inscribed with notes

Pencil with yellow highlights in crayon

10 3/4 x 14 3/4 in. (27 x 37.3 cm)

See all works by Rosemary Allan crayon pencil war women work World War II Paintings by British Artists



Provenance: Private Collection

Exhibited: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 95. 

Literature: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 95, page 140-141.


Rosemary Allan  in doing short-term contract work for the WAAC expressed her gratitude to the committee for giving them the opportunity to come to terms with subjects and conditions that were new and challenging.


By 1943 there were 7.25 million women engaged in war-related employment , the majority in agriculture, manufacturing and civil defence.
Evelyn Dunbar, the only woman to receive a full time salary, was commissioned to produce agricultural and woman subjects.

Although recording the role  of women was one of the stated aims of WAAC as Brian Foss has pointed out the scheme nevertheless favoured images of women performing conventional roles - for instance the  predominance of paintings of  women as nurses  inspite of  the fact that in 1943 munitions worker outnumbered nurses  by 100 to 1 is noticeable.  Dunbar, as the only wpman to be salaried as an  Official War Artists delighted in showing women at work in all of the essential roles they performed during the war.