In the foreword to Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience, 1914 to 1945 historian Jack Granatstein writes that the Canadian War Museum holds in excess of 13,000 art works. Over 100 of these have been selected for a nationally touring exhibition that attempts to raise the collection from the relative obscurity it has suffered for most of its history. Canvas of War, the book that accompanies the show, has the same intention, and it makes a great start.

The book’s authors, Dean F. Oliver and Laura Brandon, treat the 20th century’s two world wars separately, making war the subject of two essays. One gives a capsule history of Canada’s wartime role; the other specifically addresses the paintings. Quotes from the artists, and from service personnel, politicians and other Canadians, are sprinkled liberally throughout. The book paints a fascinating picture of a country at war, and powerfully shows how art fit into the war effort.

Canvas of War is illustrated with 110 colour plates of paintings by some of Canada’s leading artists, including Alex Colville, Frederick Varley, Arthur Lismer, J.W. Morrice, and Molly Lamb Bobak. There is a host of other contributors as well, such as Leonard Brooks, whose “Tangled Float No. 2,” above, was painted circa 1945. Unlike much official art, many of the works in Canvas of War serve both as art and as history. This is a fascinating and valuable book.