The Homecoming from Gallipoli by Walter Bowring

The Homecoming from Gallipoli by Walter Armiger Bowring, 1916.

On the 15 July 1915 the SS Willochra arrived in Wellington loaded with the first wave of New Zealand wounded from the Gallipoli Peninsula. Bowring's The Homecoming from Gallipoli illustrates the poignant loss-of-innocence moment when civilian New Zealanders first confronted the grim reality of wounds, amputations, psychological trauma and death. The painting is dominated by a seemingly unending line of khaki and bandages zig-zagging down from the ship into the jostling throng of anxious civilians. The flag and coloured streamers all hang limply, suggesting that the families waiting at the dock had expected a victorious celebration but were met instead by parade of exhausted men.

About the artist

Auckland-born Walter Armiger Bowring was a talented illustrator and successful landscape and portrait painter. In 1918 he applied unsuccessfully to become an official war artist – the New Zealand Government preferring to appoint artists serving with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) or those already living in Britain or Europe who could be sent to the Western Front quickly and cheaply.

In 1920 Bowring finally received an official commission from the Government to paint the portraits of General Chaytor and Victoria Cross recipient Bernard Freyberg. Later that year, The Homecoming from Gallipoli and two other of his paintings; The Arrival of HMS New Zealand (1913) and Departure of the Hospital ship ‘Maheno’ (1915) (see above) were acquired for New Zealand’s official war art collection. These works are among the few paintings in the collection that document New Zealand’s experience of the war on the Home Front.