Focus on A Balloon Site, Coventry and explain the abstract.
A Balloon Site, Coventry is an oil-on-canvas painting undertaken in 1942 by the British artist Laura Knight. It portrays a group of people—mostly women—working to launch a barrage balloon on the outside of Coventry, an industrial city in the Midlands that was the target of a German bombing raid in November 1940, when over 10,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on the city.
Knight had painted In for Repairs, showing members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) repairing a damaged barrage balloon, in early 1942. The Air Ministry was so impressed that they asked her to paint the WAAF in action. She was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) and paid 100 guineas for the work, which was undertaken in July and August 1942. A Balloon Site was displayed at the 1943 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, along with Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring (1943).
incendiary bombs Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring Laura Knight War Artists' Advisory Committee barrage balloon Coventry Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Women's Auxiliary Air Force bombing raid Midlands guineas Air Ministry oil-on-canvas