AN unprecedented touring exhibition is to highlight the work of the artists who served with the Artists Rifles Regiment. 

It will run from April to December 2014, taking in three Hampshire locations during that time including the Willis Museum in Basingstoke.

More than 60 works will be on display in total, many of which have been loaned by the UK’s leading museums and art galleries, including the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Academy, Arts Council England, and the British Council Collection. 

The exhibition will also feature objects loaned by the Regiment, such as uniforms, medals and other memorabilia.

The Artists Rifles Regiment was created in 1860 and its founding members represent a ‘who’s who’ of the Victorian art world, including Edward Burne-Jones, Lord Leighton, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Ford Maddox Brown. Work from all these artists will be included in the exhibition.

The Regiment went on to play a key role during the First World War when it became an officer training corps. The poets Wilfred Owen and Edward Thomas, and artists Paul and John Nash were all members of the Regiment during the War.

The exhibition will focus on a wide range of the Regiment’s work before, during and after the First World War including paintings, sculpture, postcards and cartoons, as well as readings from some poems and letters in a special spoken word film commission.

Running dates:

April 4 to June 28: Southampton City Art Gallery, Civic Centre Road, Southampton

July 5 to September 27: Sainsbury Gallery, Willis Museum, Market Place, Basingstoke

October 4 to December 27: Gallery at Gosport Discovery Centre, Walpole Road