WALLER, MERVYN NAPIER (1893-1972)

"Nord" (1916)
ink on paper
cm
signed lower right (from sketchbook)
*private collection, Sydney
 
Mervyn Napier Waller CMG  OBE was a noted Australian muralist, mosaicist and painter in stained glass and other media. He is perhaps best known for the mosaics and stained glass for the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, completed in 1958. However, Melbourne has been described as "a gallery of Napier Waller’s work", as eleven monumental murals by Waller are on display in the central business district and at the University of Melbourne’s main campus. He was strongly influenced by Pre-Raphaelite and late-nineteenth century British painters; his monumental works show an increasingly classical and calmly formal style, using timeless and heroic figure compositions to express ideas and ideals, sometimes with theosophical or gnostic overtones.
 
This fascinating field sketch was completed on a visit to the Somme during World I. It was completed using his left arm shortly after he had lost his preferred right arm during battle. Similar sketches appear in the Australian War Memorial Collection.