The Painter, the Pilot, and a Rendezvous with Death Promising Australian artist Evelyn Chapman visited France’s battlefields immediately after the Great War. She travelled with her father, who was attached to the Imperial War Graves Commission and responsible for re-burying ANZAC soldiers who had died at Villers-Bretonneux. Here, Chapman paints the ruins of the Villers-Bretonneux church. Chapman’s battlefield paintings were notable for their sense of optimism and colour: her scenes of devastation and loss were interspersed with vibrant flowers and delicate red poppies growing amongst the ruins. Chapman later exhibited at the Salon des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1920 and 1921. Despite her burgeoning success, tragedy struck Chapman in 1923. That year Chapman met the dashing British pilot Lieutenant Claude Bucknall. Bucknall was a veteran who suffered from a war induced nervous condition known as neurasthenia. Bucknall became besotted with Chapma...