THE WEDNESDAY ART CLUB
Exploring “Menin Gate at Midnight”
Will Longstaff’s haunting memorial to the young men lost in World War One.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.from “For the fallen” by Laurence Binyon
Will Longstaff was already a well-known artist in 1927, when he painted his haunting Menin Gate at midnight. The painting, oil on canvas, is sometimes known as Ghosts of Menin Gate and is arguably his finest work.
A higher definition image can be found here.
Longstaff had served in World War 1 as an Australian soldier and was at Ypres, Belgium, when the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing was unveiled on Sunday, 24 July, 1927, by Field Marshall Lord Plumer. It was dedicated to British and Commonwealth soldiers who had no known grave As the relatives of the fallen filed past him, Plumer said to each, “He is not missing. He is here.”
