Brandon, Laura

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

Canadian Military HistoryVolume 9 | Issue 1 Article 61-20-2012Orville Fisher, Official War Artist (1911-1999)Laura BrandonCanadian War MuseumThis Canadian War Museum is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in CanadianMilitary History by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationBrandon, Laura (2000) "Orville Fisher, Official War Artist (1911-1999)," Canadian Military History: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 6.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss1/6Laura Brandon are always doing something, his tanks and vehicles are always going somewhere, his vessels are always sailing resolutely towards shore. This determination always to move forward characterizes his history as a war artist. Obstacles were there to be overcome. Before the war, Fisher's career as a working artist had been largely as a painter of murals for buildings and churches in the Vancouver area, in partnership with fellow future official war artists Paul Goranson and E.J. Hughes. Upon learning the news that war had been declared in September 1939, the trio determined that their artistic skills should be put to use in some sort of official military capacity. The example of the First World War art program, the Canadian War Memorials, was their inspiration. Within two weeks of the outbreak of war, they wrote to the director of the National Gallery of Canada, H.O. McCurry, seeking employment as war artists.1 McCurry forwarded their applications to the Department of Defence in October, but at that time the military had made no provision for the employment of artists.2 With no response forthcoming, Fisher joined the Royal Canadian Engineers in August 1940. However, at some point h is ear l ier correspondence appears to have come to the attention of the director of the Historical Section in Ottawa, A. Fortescue Duguid, who began to make use of Fisher and Hughes as war artists in Ottawa in the hopes that a more serious programme might develop. "The employment of selected members of the Canadian Army (Active) on the pictor ia l recording of C a n a d i a n participation in the current war is contemplated," he wrote to McCurry in March 1941. "For some time past two artists, Sergeant E.J. Hughes and Sapper O.N. Fisher have been under instruction Orville Fisher passed away on 13 July 1999. His paintings of the Second World War are one of the most complete records of Canada's day-to-day role in that conflict. Perhaps his chief claim to fame is that he was the only Allied war artist actually to land in Normandy on D-D ay, 6 June 1944. This achievement is all the more extraordinary given the fact that he almost never made it overseas in the first place. Fisher worked as a service artist with the Canadian Army starting in February 1942, and a year later became an Official War Artist. He did not re-enter civilian life until July 1946. As a war artist, and undoubtedly as a person, Fisher was a determined and creative man. Nowhere is this clearer than in the preparations he made for the D-Day landing, when he strapped a sketchbook to his arm so that he could make quick sketches as he raced ashore. Unlike fellow war artist Charles Comfort's reconstruction of the August 1942 Dieppe Raid that was created four years after the event in the peace and security of a studio, Fisher's D-Day- the Assault was based on a real-life experience of action replete with all the turmoil and blood. Attached to the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Fisher landed on the beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer on 6 June 1944. For those who were not there, his experience can arguably be said to have been recreated in all its horror for today's generation in the first 20 minutes of Stephen Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan. D-Day-The Assault was the sor t of composition Fisher excelled at. A browse through the hundreds of works he completed in the collection of the Canadian War Museum show an artist whose interests lay in the action of war rather than in the ravaged landscapes that had typified the art of the First World War. His soldiers © Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 1, Winter 2000, pp.56-59. 57 1Brandon: Orville FisherPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders Advancing into Caen, July 8, 1944 by Orville N. Fisher reproductions of the artist's work that he had been sent. The Army's historical section in Ottawa responded, "that his talents [did] deserve employment."6 McCurry, the Chairman of the War Artists Control Committee in Ottawa, stood by the original February appointment made by his committee, and, despite Massey's reservations, Fisher set sail for England. We will probably never know whether he was aware of how close he had come to failing in his four-year goal. Suffice it to say that the energy and commitment that he had put towards becoming a war artist were now directed at producing a war record that not only told of the achievements of Canadians, but also moved his own art forwards. By the end he had reversed the opinions of 1943. As an art ist he worked indefatigably. Countless detailed sketches in the Canadian War Museum demonstrate that he earned his position as one of Canada's notable war artists through hard work. Innumerable detailed studies of here with a view to testing and improving their capacity to function effectively as war artists in the field."3 Two years later, with a war artist scheme just announced, Fisher, along with artist Jack Shadbolt, was still pleading with McCurry for a chance at recording the action. "We are both determined to make every reasonable effort to be in a position to work effectively," wrote Shadbolt on behalf of them both.4 Possibly this letter never needed to be written, for one day later, on 5 February 1943, the Canadian War Artists' Control Committee in Ottawa recommended the appointment of Fisher as an Official War Artist. It was still not all smooth sailing. The artist was all set to go to England in September 1943 when the Canadian High Commissioner in London, Vincent Massey, wrote to McCurry that he and his advisory committee did not think Fisher was "qualified to perform the duties proposed."5 Massey's a s s e s s m e n t was made on the bas i s of 58 2Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 1, Art. 6http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss1/6Recruits Wanted by Orville N. Fisher These are the works that veterans most admire, and it is probably through Fisher's paintings more than those of any artist, that they can best relive their own experiences. For this alone, his war art is an enduring achievement. Notes 1. National Gallery of Canada Archives, Canadian War Artists, Orville Fisher, 5.42-F, Paul Goranson, Orville Fisher, Edward Hughes to H.O. McCurry, 2 October 1939. 2. Ibid., H.O. McCurry to Orville Fisher, 24 October 1939. 3. Ibid., A. Fortescue Duguid to H.O. McCurry, 8 March 1941. 4. Ibid., J.L. Shadbolt to H.O. McCurry, 4 February 1943. 5. Ibid., Vincent Massey to H.O. McCurry, 30 September 1943 6. Ibid., H.M. Thomas to H.O. McCurry, 2 October 1943. Laura Brandon is Curator of War Art at the Canadian War Museum. hands, of equipment, and of dress attest to an ongoing apprenticeship with the materiel of war that was to stand him in good stead when he crossed to France on D-Day and had to work fast and accurately to capture the action. From his cheerful 1941 recruiting image Recruits Wanted to the drama of his Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders advancing into Caen his war art has remained popular. His best painting is probably the unusual work called Battle for Carpiquet Airfield. Here he combines his preferred grouping of soldiers on the move with an over-arching cathedral-l ike panoply of twisted metal. More than any other of his compositions it shows an artist who has moved beyond the mere documentary to a true engagement with his creative gifts. Battle for Carpiquet Airfield is an exception because, over the six years that he was a war artist, Fisher largely rejected experimental art forms in favour of painting from the perspective of the ordinary soldier. Battle for Carpiquet Airfield by Orville N. Fisher 3Brandon: Orville FisherPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000Image 1: Oh Reveille by Paul Goranson shows a typical Manning Pool washroom scene; although this is a "fancy one" with individual basins. At RCAF Manning Depot No. 2, Brandon a long, open trough was remembered. Image 2: Lunch Hour Alrmens Mess by Paul Goranson is reminiscent of meals served during the construction of No. 14 EFTS, Portage la Prairie in 1940. 4Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 1, Art. 6http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss1/6

Orville Fisher, Official War Artist (1911-1999)

Scholars Commons

Canadian Military History
Volume 9 | Issue 1 Article 6
1-20-2012
Orville Fisher, Official War Artist (1911-1999)
Laura Brandon
Canadian War Museum
This Canadian War Museum is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian
Military History by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Brandon, Laura (2000) "Orville Fisher, Official War Artist (1911-1999)," Canadian Military History: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss1/6
Laura Brandon 
are always doing something, his tanks 
and vehicles are always going somewhere, 
his vessels are always sailing resolutely 
towards shore. This determination 
always to move forward characterizes his 
history as a war artist. Obstacles were 
there to be overcome. 
Before the war, Fisher's career as a 
working artist had been largely as a painter of 
murals for buildings and churches in the 
Vancouver area, in partnership with fellow future 
official war artists Paul Goranson and E.J. 
Hughes. Upon learning the news that war had 
been declared in September 1939, the trio 
determined that their artistic skills should be put 
to use in some sort of official military capacity. 
The example of the First World War art program, 
the Canadian War Memorials, was their 
inspiration. Within two weeks of the outbreak of 
war, they wrote to the director of the National 
Gallery of Canada, H.O. McCurry, seeking 
employment as war artists.1 McCurry forwarded 
their applications to the Department of Defence 
in October, but at that time the military had made 
no provision for the employment of artists.2 
With no response forthcoming, Fisher joined 
the Royal Canadian Engineers in August 1940. 
However, at some point h is ear l ier 
correspondence appears to have come to the 
attention of the director of the Historical Section 
in Ottawa, A. Fortescue Duguid, who began to 
make use of Fisher and Hughes as war artists in 
Ottawa in the hopes that a more serious 
programme might develop. "The employment of 
selected members of the Canadian Army (Active) 
on the pictor ia l recording of C a n a d i a n 
participation in the current war is contemplated," 
he wrote to McCurry in March 1941. "For some 
time past two artists, Sergeant E.J. Hughes and 
Sapper O.N. Fisher have been under instruction 
Orville Fisher passed away on 13 July 
1999. His paintings of the Second World 
War are one of the most complete records 
of Canada's day-to-day role in that 
conflict. Perhaps his chief claim to fame 
is that he was the only Allied war artist 
actually to land in Normandy on D-D ay, 
6 June 1944. This achievement is all the 
more extraordinary given the fact that he 
almost never made it overseas in the first place. 
Fisher worked as a service artist with the 
Canadian Army starting in February 1942, and 
a year later became an Official War Artist. He did 
not re-enter civilian life until July 1946. As a war 
artist, and undoubtedly as a person, Fisher was 
a determined and creative man. Nowhere is this 
clearer than in the preparations he made for the 
D-Day landing, when he strapped a sketchbook 
to his arm so that he could make quick sketches 
as he raced ashore. Unlike fellow war artist 
Charles Comfort's reconstruction of the August 
1942 Dieppe Raid that was created four years 
after the event in the peace and security of a 
studio, Fisher's D-Day- the Assault was based 
on a real-life experience of action replete with all 
the turmoil and blood. Attached to the 3rd 
Canadian Infantry Division, Fisher landed on the 
beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer on 6 June 1944. 
For those who were not there, his experience can 
arguably be said to have been recreated in all its 
horror for today's generation in the first 20 
minutes of Stephen Spielberg's film, Saving 
Private Ryan. 
D-Day-The Assault was the sor t of 
composition Fisher excelled at. A browse through 
the hundreds of works he completed in the 
collection of the Canadian War Museum show an 
artist whose interests lay in the action of war 
rather than in the ravaged landscapes that had 
typified the art of the First World War. His soldiers 
© Canadian Military History, Volume 9, Number 1, Winter 2000, pp.56-59. 57 
1
Brandon: Orville Fisher
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000
Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders Advancing into Caen, July 8, 1944 
by Orville N. Fisher 
reproductions of the artist's work that he had 
been sent. The Army's historical section in 
Ottawa responded, "that his talents [did] deserve 
employment."6 McCurry, the Chairman of the War 
Artists Control Committee in Ottawa, stood by 
the original February appointment made by his 
committee, and, despite Massey's reservations, 
Fisher set sail for England. We will probably never 
know whether he was aware of how close he had 
come to failing in his four-year goal. Suffice it to 
say that the energy and commitment that he had 
put towards becoming a war artist were now 
directed at producing a war record that not only 
told of the achievements of Canadians, but also 
moved his own art forwards. By the end he had 
reversed the opinions of 1943. 
As an art ist he worked indefatigably. 
Countless detailed sketches in the Canadian War 
Museum demonstrate that he earned his position 
as one of Canada's notable war artists through 
hard work. Innumerable detailed studies of 
here with a view to testing and improving their 
capacity to function effectively as war artists in 
the field."3 Two years later, with a war artist 
scheme just announced, Fisher, along with artist 
Jack Shadbolt, was still pleading with McCurry 
for a chance at recording the action. "We are 
both determined to make every reasonable effort 
to be in a position to work effectively," wrote 
Shadbolt on behalf of them both.4 
Possibly this letter never needed to be written, 
for one day later, on 5 February 1943, the 
Canadian War Artists' Control Committee in 
Ottawa recommended the appointment of Fisher 
as an Official War Artist. It was still not all 
smooth sailing. The artist was all set to go to 
England in September 1943 when the Canadian 
High Commissioner in London, Vincent Massey, 
wrote to McCurry that he and his advisory 
committee did not think Fisher was "qualified 
to perform the duties proposed."5 Massey's 
a s s e s s m e n t was made on the bas i s of 
58 
2
Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 1, Art. 6
http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss1/6
Recruits Wanted 
by Orville N. Fisher 
These are the works that veterans 
most admire, and it is probably 
through Fisher's paintings more than 
those of any artist, that they can best 
relive their own experiences. For this 
alone, his war art is an enduring 
achievement. 
Notes 
1. National Gallery of Canada Archives, Canadian War 
Artists, Orville Fisher, 5.42-F, Paul Goranson, Orville 
Fisher, Edward Hughes to H.O. McCurry, 2 October 
1939. 
2. Ibid., H.O. McCurry to Orville Fisher, 24 October 1939. 
3. Ibid., A. Fortescue Duguid to H.O. McCurry, 8 March 
1941. 
4. Ibid., J.L. Shadbolt to H.O. McCurry, 4 February 1943. 
5. Ibid., Vincent Massey to H.O. McCurry, 30 September 
1943 
6. Ibid., H.M. Thomas to H.O. McCurry, 2 October 1943. 
Laura Brandon is Curator of War Art at the 
Canadian War Museum. 
hands, of equipment, and of dress attest to an 
ongoing apprenticeship with the materiel of war 
that was to stand him in good stead when he 
crossed to France on D-Day and had to work fast 
and accurately to capture the action. From his 
cheerful 1941 recruiting image Recruits Wanted 
to the drama of his Stormont, Dundas and 
Glengarry Highlanders advancing into Caen his 
war art has remained popular. His best painting 
is probably the unusual work called Battle for 
Carpiquet Airfield. Here he combines his 
preferred grouping of soldiers on the move with 
an over-arching cathedral-l ike 
panoply of twisted metal. More than 
any other of his compositions it 
shows an artist who has moved 
beyond the mere documentary to a 
true engagement with his creative 
gifts. 
Battle for Carpiquet Airfield is 
an exception because, over the six 
years that he was a war artist, Fisher 
largely rejected experimental art 
forms in favour of painting from the 
perspective of the ordinary soldier. 
Battle for Carpiquet Airfield 
by Orville N. Fisher 
3
Brandon: Orville Fisher
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2000
Image 1: Oh Reveille by Paul Goranson shows a typical Manning Pool washroom scene; although this is a 
"fancy one" with individual basins. At RCAF Manning Depot No. 2, Brandon a long, open trough was 
remembered. 
Image 2: Lunch Hour Alrmens Mess by Paul Goranson is reminiscent of meals served during the 
construction of No. 14 EFTS, Portage la Prairie in 1940. 
4
Canadian Military History, Vol. 9 [2000], Iss. 1, Art. 6
http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol9/iss1/6


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Orville Fisher, Official War Artist (1911-1999)

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