Children Learning to use Gas Masks
1940
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1940
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Children Learning to use Gas Masks is a 1940 by Charles Mahoney, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This drawing shows children practicing how to use gas masks in 1939. It’s a simple but striking image by Charles Mahoney, an English artist known for his detailed drawings. The sketch has grid lines, which means Mahoney probably copied it bigger later. The kids might have been local schoolchildren near his home in Wrotham, Kent. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see this drawing in person.
A charcoal drawing on paper from 1939 by Charles Mahoney depicts four children in the foreground adjusting each other’s gas masks while others walk in an orderly line across a playground under adult supervision. The composition is framed within an oval and divided by a pencil grid, indicating it may have been a scaled sketch later enlarged or replicated. The linear, graphic style employs strong outlines and broad hatching for shading, with an adult figure overseeing the drill in the background. The scene likely reflects local schoolchildren in Wrotham, Kent, where Mahoney lived during this…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Cyril Mahoney, known as Charles Mahoney, was a British artist and teacher, known for his large-scale mural work.
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