Visitors to the critically acclaimed current exhibition at Imperial War Museum North – Witness: Highlights of First World War Art  - will themselves be able to witness an historic painting being painstakingly restored thanks to a generous sponsorship from Manchester Airports Group.

Walter Bayes’ painting The Underworld (1918) is currently on display for the first time in over 20 years, after having been rolled and placed into storage in the 1980s prior to gallery refurbishment at Imperial War Museum London. It is an extremely important and powerful work, one of the first (and an extremely rare) depiction of civilians using underground stations as bomb shelters when London was under threat in the First World War. The first Zeppelin Balloon raid on the city took place in September 1915 and by the end of the war hundreds of Londoners had been killed.

The Underworld, Walter Bayes, © IWM

The painting is fundamentally fragile as Bayes, who had a theatre design background, used two theatre flat canvases sewn together rather than standard artist materials. During storage the material folded back on itself creating two vertical lines of damage to the canvas as well as to the paint and varnish. The structure has now been re-strengthened by fitting a new lining to the canvas.  Paris-based conservator Warwick MacCallum is an experienced oils conservator working in the UK and France and will be based in the exhibition from 21 March to mid April, cleaning, varnishing and retouching this vast painting, which is 5.5 metres long. Underworld will remain on display at Imperial War Museum North after Witness: Highlights of First World War Art finishes on 23 April.

Roger Tolson, Keeper of Art at Imperial War Museum says “Walter Bayes most likely witnessed the scene depicted as Elephant & Castle tube station was close to the art school where he taught.  Painted for display at the Royal Academy, he clearly felt motivated by the subject matter to have worked on this scale. It’s an important glimpse of social history in terms of characters, dress, relations and behaviour and is a very engaging and immediate image. This conservation work means that the public can have more permanent access to the painting. Without the airport sponsorship we would have had to put it back into storage. It is a major painting from the collection but is little known by the public.”
 
Sue Jones, arts sponsorship manager for Manchester Airports Group, said: “We’re glad we were able to help. The arts sponsorship programme is about making the arts accessible to the widest possible audience. The Imperial War Museum North is one of the regions top attractions, and the restoration of this painting will no doubt be popular with visitors.”