Wellington's war artist

​War artists often captured the harsh realities of war in a way that gave a visual shock.
Not only did they show us the images but some were also appointed officially by governments who used them in other ways, to show them landscapes so they could plan, record events or for propaganda purposes.
Nugent Herrmann Welch was born on July 30, 1881 in Akaroa to Joseph and Isabel.
Joseph was surveyor and in 1893 he took a position as a draughtsman in Wellington and moved his family there.
Nugent was interested in art early, copying his father who was an amateur artist.
He passed first and second grade drawing exams and became a clerk in the accounts branch of the Wellington Harbour board but hated it, resigning to become a full time artist.
He worked full time from the family’s Wright Street home in Mount Cook then opened a studio in Boulcott street and began exhibiting.
The first World War came and he enlisted in March 1916 and served with the 2nd Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade on the western front.
In April 1918 Nooge as he was called was appointed divisional war artist with the temporary rank of sergeant. His landscapes often featured ruined buildings and seldom included people, portraying the desolate aftermath of battle.
After his discharge in 1919 he went back to his art, becoming a member of the council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.
For the National Art Gallery's opening in 1936, he was commissioned to paint a large canvas of Wellington Harbour; it was later displayed at Government House.
Landscapes in particular held his interest, and most of his attention was devoted
to the lower North Island, particularly Wellington's rugged coastline.
Cape Terawhiti was one of his favourite painting locations. Tall and athletic, he regularly tramped for three hours to Oteranga Bay, where he would paint by day (often nude) and spend nights in a cave furnished with wood from the beach.
He most often worked in watercolours.
He received an OBE in 1949 and many of his works at held at Te Papa.
After a fall in 1964 he was forced to give up his studio. He never married and lived in his family home until 1967 when he moved to a rest home with his sister Jessie.
He died in Wellington on July 16, 1970 and his ashes were scattered at Cape Terawhiti.