'Images of War & Peace at Waterloo Station - The Evolution of Helen McKie's Iconic Posters' Loan Exhibition 2011
The original artwork for two famous posters depicting bustling crowds of passengers at Waterloo Station in wartime and in peacetime, was loaned for a special exhibition alongside the Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair 2011.
The engaging feature of the pictures by Helen McKie is that both images show hundreds of people in identical locations and poses, only with changed clothing and activities in each picture. In the 1943 scene the activity reflects the purposeful activity of London life during World War II, whereas the 1947 picture shows the characters more joyfully setting out in search of fun.
The images provide a fascinating insight into the social history of the period. In particular the wartime scene shows the many roles that women adopted during Word War II.
This exhibition demonstrated the complete evolution from sketchpad to the final large travel posters. In addition to about 20 of the sketches, was the vibrant fully worked-up poster-size watercolours, and finally two of the posters as printed for advertising purposes.
Helen Madeleine McKie (1899 –1957) was an illustrator who was renowned for her meticulous attention to detail. Throughout the wartime years of 1939 to 1942 McKie produced watercolour studies of individuals and groups at Waterloo Station, and then in 1943 she created the first of the large watercolour panoramas of the Station, using many of the intimate and amusing details from her sketches. Four years later in 1947 she was commissioned by Southern Railway to create the companion piece, so that both works could be used as posters to celebrate the Centenary of Waterloo Station in 1948.
Just 1,500 of the posters were printed, of which far fewer have survived to today. Not only are the original posters very valuable, but the images have been reproduced many times as cards, prints, and even jigsaw puzzles.
*All the works were loaned by the National Railway Museum.
The engaging feature of the pictures by Helen McKie is that both images show hundreds of people in identical locations and poses, only with changed clothing and activities in each picture. In the 1943 scene the activity reflects the purposeful activity of London life during World War II, whereas the 1947 picture shows the characters more joyfully setting out in search of fun.
The images provide a fascinating insight into the social history of the period. In particular the wartime scene shows the many roles that women adopted during Word War II.
This exhibition demonstrated the complete evolution from sketchpad to the final large travel posters. In addition to about 20 of the sketches, was the vibrant fully worked-up poster-size watercolours, and finally two of the posters as printed for advertising purposes.
Helen Madeleine McKie (1899 –1957) was an illustrator who was renowned for her meticulous attention to detail. Throughout the wartime years of 1939 to 1942 McKie produced watercolour studies of individuals and groups at Waterloo Station, and then in 1943 she created the first of the large watercolour panoramas of the Station, using many of the intimate and amusing details from her sketches. Four years later in 1947 she was commissioned by Southern Railway to create the companion piece, so that both works could be used as posters to celebrate the Centenary of Waterloo Station in 1948.
Just 1,500 of the posters were printed, of which far fewer have survived to today. Not only are the original posters very valuable, but the images have been reproduced many times as cards, prints, and even jigsaw puzzles.
*All the works were loaned by the National Railway Museum.
