NEW ACQUISITION
William Gilbert Gaul
T E N N E S S E E S TAT E M U S E U M
William Gilbert Gaul (1855-1919), Untitled (World William Gilbert Gaul (1855-1919), Untitled (Two World War I Nurses Carrying Stretcher), oil on
War I Nurses on Battlefield), oil on canvas, 1914-1919. canvas, 1914-1919. Courtesy Tennessee State Museum.
Courtesy Tennessee State Museum.
M ore recently acquired by the Tennessee State
Museum, are two significant oil paintings by
William Gilbert Gaul (1855-1919), who was
known for his war and battle scene depictions. The two
Untitled works, painted towards the end of the artist’s life,
portray World War I nurses at work on the battlefield, painted
in Gaul’s impressionistic, dramatic style.
“Best known for his paintings of the Civil War, which took
place while Gaul was a child living in New Jersey, [in these
pieces] Gaul turned to the Great War that coincided with the
last years of his life, bringing a looser style but the same capable
rendering of the emotion and intensity of battle to this work,”
explains Candice Roland Candeto, Tennessee State Museum
curator of fine art.
Candeto further explains that both scenes depict American
Red Cross nurses on the battlefield carrying a wounded soldier
on a stretcher. “Regular army hospital units were not ready for
service when the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, so the
Red Cross stepped in to fulfill medical needs,” she says. “Six
Red Cross Army base hospital units, including women, were
ordered to France to aid allied troops. The Red Cross Nursing
Service recruited and supplied nurses for the Army Nurse
Corps (ANC). By the end of the war, the ANC grew from
400 to 21,000 women, half of whom had traveled to France.”
Gaul never served in the military himself, due to poor health,
but relied on his imagination and studies to render his subject
matter. Gaul is also known as the youngest person admitted
to the prestigious National Academy of Design at only 17
years old. He soon achieved international success through his
exhibitions and published illustrations, and besides war scenery,
he is recognized for his pastoral landscapes, Western portrayals
and rural life.
While Gaul had roots in New Jersey, family also brought
him to Tennessee in his younger years, and later in life, he
settled in Nashville. Gaul’s history with Tennessee makes this
acquisition all the more thrilling, as it provides educational and
relevant insights to the museum’s holdings.
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