The Duchess and the Soldier
Life in a First World War field hospital is depicted in a new exhibition.
Ten paintings by the French artist Victor Tardieu (1870-1937), recently acquired by the Florence Nightingale Museum, provide a new perspective on the role played by women volunteers in France and Belgium during the First World War. The series creates a record of the volunteer field hospital run by Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland (1867-1955) at Bourbourg near Dunkirk in the summer of 1915. Best known for his role as founder of the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Hanoi in the late 1920s, Tardieu served as an auxiliary with Sutherland for several months. His paintings depict life at the field hospital, showing French
and Belgian soldiers treated by her medical staff.
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