The Ghosts of Vimy Ridge
On Easter Sunday, 1917, Canadian soldiers launched a bloody, victorious attack on the German-held Vimy Ridge. This battle is considered a defining moment for Canada coming into its own as a young country.
In William Longstaff’s oil painting, The Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, the spectres of almost 3,600 fallen Canadian soldiers trod back to camp, through shell-pocked ground and darkness, guided by light from below that illuminates Walter Allward’s massive Canadian monument.
Longstaff, an Australian, sold the painting to Captain John Arthur Dewer, of the Dewer distillery family, who presented it to Canadian Prime Minister R.B. Bennett in 1931.