1000 Museums

William Barnes Wollen was an early 20th-century English painter famous for battle and sporting genre scenes. After graduating from University College London, he exhibited his early sporting paintings at the esteemed Royal Academy and the National Watercolour Society. In 1900, he was commissioned to record the Boer War in South Africa and then on the frontlines of the trenches in World War I. The following period of years allowed him to develop his battle scene painting skills, and he was able to create firsthand accounts of historically significant events. He lived out the rest of his life in London, where he continued to produce sporting scenes until his death at 78 in 1936.