Women War Artists

This is what I like to see: good old-fashioned first aid. Believe it or not, prior to the 1960's when the link between smoking and lung cancer was established, the prime act of first aid was to stick a cigarette in the casualty's mouth and light it for him. If he coughed, he was alive. If not, he was dead. And here's the proof: Olive Mudie-Cooke's In an Ambulance: A VAD lighting a cigarette for a patient. This is one of the paintings in a most unusual exhibition which opens next Saturday at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester: Witness: Women War Artists. "This is the first UK exhibition for over 50 years to bring together the works and personal reflections of key female war artists, from the First World War to the Kosovo conflict in 2000" (title link). The exhibition continues until 19 April. For a BBC gallery CLICK.