Nugent Welch was New Zealand’s first ‘war artist.’ Thirty-two of Welch’s works are in New Zealand’s National Collection of War Art held at Archives NZ. As a soldier, Welch was more engaged in the fighting than the politics of war, yet most of his works are political: desolate, shell ridden landscapes showing the horror of war on the landscape
This painting of the village of Pas, the Somme 1918, is by N.H. Welch. Note the poppies in the field. See the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association website for information on the significance of the poppy.
