View from Inverness Battery "Hamisah" looking towards Ber Wasil Mageikra

Place Africa: Egypt, Frontier, Sinai
Accession Number ART19634
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 27.7 x 73 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description pencil on paper (two sheets)
Maker Hewett, Otho
Place made Egypt: Frontier, Sinai
Date made October 1916
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Depicts a panoramic and topographical view of the desert, landscape, barren ground and flat hills towards Ber Wasil Mageikra in Egypt with the Turkish observation position evident on the horizon. The artist included pencilled notes on the panorama about the conditions, events and location including, 'Lt, Palmer killed', 'Gun position/ Point of vision', 'afternoon light. cloudy', 'Captured German and M.G.' and 'Bin El Hamisah 150 yards East'.
Otho Hewett (1887- 1942) served with the 9th Light Horse Regiment and 3rd Light Horse Brigade Headquarters during the First World War. Trained as a designer is South Australia, he joined the ANZAC Divisional Headquarters at Romani as a panoramic artist and sketched each battlefield on the way to Jericho. He also contributed illustrations to Kia-Ora Coo-Ee, the magazine which was written and edited by Australian and New Zealand troops serving in Egypt, Palestine, Salonica and Mesopotamia, printed in Cairo and appeared in monthly issues between March and December 1918. Returning to Australia, Hewett lived in Adelaide during the 1920s and then moved to the town of Tintinara where he lived between 1929 and 1942, working as an artist, craftsman and cafe owner. He also made furniture and musical instruments. Hewett painted an Egyptian drop scene for the Tinitinara Hall when it opened in 1931 and died in 1942.