Art appreciation by wartime housewives

Windsor town, railway and the Curfew Tower and Horseshoe Cloister, Windsor Castle c.1941-4

The Round Tower from the roof of St George’s Chapel c.1941-4

These are two of 26 watercolours commissioned by Queen Elizabeth and are in the Royal Collection.

I have recently started reading the blog of Wartime Housewife and I am particularly enthused by her post entitled "Off the Wall", which I have linked here. This is a very sensible expression which encapsulates the piece:

The appreciation of art is something that should be intrinsic and accessible to all of us.  Not necessarily just staring at paintings or pots or piles of ceramic seeds, but having the understanding that the things around us should have an element of beauty.

With her reference to the works of John Piper, I thought of another wartime housewife, who commissioned rather dramatic images of Windsor Castle, for posterity, lest the Luftwaffe's endeavours rendered them to a pile of rubble.