Thomas Hennell’s Charcoal Burner was painted as a result of a commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee, established in 1939 at the instigation of Sir Kenneth Clark, Director of the National Gallery. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artistic record of Britain throughout the war. Clark and his committee ( believed that art could capture the spirit of the war in a way that photography (which was heavily censored and often focused on hardware) could not. To achieve this, Official War Artists were appointed either on full-time or temporary contracts and by acquiring artworks from other artists.
It is likely that this painting was exhibited at the National Gallery under this scheme and considering the label on the reverse, under an RAF directive.
‘… at the start of 1942, he reported that “the Leicester Galleries have hung an oil for the first time.” Although Hennell did not have an affinity with oil (“my subjects are inclined to be fleeting,” he said, “& I can work much more quickly in watercolour”), the directors of the Leicester Galleries rated his work in this medium and “asked for more oil paintings” from him in January.’
Jessica Kilburn, Thomas Hennell. The Land and the Mind, London: Pimpernel Press, 2021, pages 246 and 248
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