Sisters take cover

This small painting depicts two nurses (likely to be Australian) entering an underground air raid shelter at Abbeville, France. The subject matter is unusual for the artist, known predominantly as one of Australia's preeminent landscape painters. Together with 'Abbeville' (ART92139) and 'The ward' (ART93184), both made at the same time as 'Sisters take cover', they tell a story of what it was like for nurses serving at the Western Front during the First World War. Abbeville is located on the Somme River, and was the site of an Allied medical base that serviced casualties coming in from the Somme battlefields. Three hospitals operated at Abbeville: No.3 Australian General Hospital (AGH), the South African General Hospital and No.2 British Stationary Hospital. In 1918, there were still frequent bombing raids by German aeroplanes, but No.3 AGH was not hit.