Britain’s ‘trailblazing’ female war artists finally come out of the shadows

A new exhibition and documentary celebrate the women who have been undervalued for yearsIn April 1945, Doris Zinkeisen became the first female artist to enter the newly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just as the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby was making his historic broadcast about the horrors that went on inside its walls.Zinkeisen was working as a nurse for the British Red Cross, which had also commissioned her to paint Belsen. It was where the Royal Academy graduate did her most famous painting, Human Laundry, showing nurses cleaning emaciated men. Continue reading...

Mar 16, 2025 - 15:54
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Britain’s ‘trailblazing’ female war artists finally come out of the shadows

A new exhibition and documentary celebrate the women who have been undervalued for years

In April 1945, Doris Zinkeisen became the first female artist to enter the newly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just as the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby was making his historic broadcast about the horrors that went on inside its walls.

Zinkeisen was working as a nurse for the British Red Cross, which had also commissioned her to paint Belsen. It was where the Royal Academy graduate did her most famous painting, Human Laundry, showing nurses cleaning emaciated men. Continue reading...