The Wilfrid de Glehn estate is represented by
David Messum Fine Art Ltd.
London
England
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Later, by December 1916, Wilfrid was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery and revisited the Veneto under new, grotesque, circumstances, finding himself caught up in the Allied retreat from Caporetto, which he described as “one of the wildest and most rapid flights in history”. In a letter to Jane of November 1917 he reports,
I spent one of these days—a glorious autumn day—on the top of San Michele with my Col. and the Lt.Col. doing sketches—panoramas of the battle ground—such fair and glorious views—such peace in line and colour and yet so full of sounds of shell and great clouds of bursts.
Views of mountain ranges around Caporetto, Northern Italy, watercolour, 1917
The carefully measured and labelled landscapes dating from this period, in which lines of Austrian and Italian trenches are marked, indicate that his sketching in this instance was concerned with more than just the ‘fair and glorious views’. This group of drawings are related to a number now held at the Imperial War Museum. All the works were smuggled out of Italy during the Allied retreat under the floorboards of a staff car. In 1918 he was seconded to Allied Intelligence, his facility with languages having been recognised. He was stationed first at Tours and then at Versailles and was present at the time ofthe signing of the treaty. Several watercolours of the statues in the gardens at Versailles date from this period.
Archive photographs of Wilfrid de Glehn during World War One. They are thought to date from 1917-18
when he worked with Allied Intelligence at Tours and then Versailles.
Sculpture in the Gardens at Versailles,
watercolour, c. 1918