Regimental Band

Darsie Japp was a painter of landscape and figure compositions. He studied at the Slade School of Art and was an associate of the painters Stanley Spencer and Henry Lamb. During the First World War Japp served as a major in the Royal Field Artillery and was awarded the Military Cross. This unusual painting with its vivid, stylised shell-bursts was originally a design for a poster, though to publicise what is not clear. Despite receiving an official commission from the British War Memorial Committee in 1918 to paint The Royal Field Artillery in Macedonia, Spring 1918, Japp was dissuaded from becoming a full-time artist by Henry Lamb and chose a career as a race horse breeder instead.