Sutherland was employed as an Official War Artist from 1941, one of very few to be on a full-time, salaried role. He worked predominantly on the Home Front until November 1944, when he was sent to France. This watercolour was made in 1945 during an extended commission to depict German flying bomb depots in caves near Paris. These had been heavily bombed by the Allies. Sutherland wrote, 'The caves were so high that the bombs made holes in the top of the hills...I've never seen such a panoramic piece of devastation in my life.'

Suthlerland would make sketches on the spot and then work them up into finished watercolours or paintings. He produced nine known works of the flying bomb depots.

Flying Bomb Depot | National Museums Liverpool

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Sutherland was employed as an Official War Artist from 1941, one of very few to be on a full-time, salaried role. He worked predominantly on the Home Front until November 1944, when he was sent to France. This watercolour was made in 1945 during an extended commission to depict German flying bomb depots in caves near Paris. These had been heavily bombed by the Allies. Sutherland wrote, 'The caves were so high that the bombs made holes in the top of the hills...I've never seen such a panoramic piece of devastation in my life.' Suthlerland would make sketches on the spot and then work them up into finished watercolours or paintings. He produced nine known works of the flying bomb depots.

Flying Bomb Depot

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