Building Ships: A Shipyard
- Artist: Sir Muirhead Bone
- Date: c.1917
- Medium: Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions: image: 464 x 363 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Building Ships: A Shipyard” by Sir Muirhead Bone, a lithograph on paper created around 1917. It was presented to us by the Ministry of Information in 1918, just as Britain was pushing its industrial capacity into full war mode. Bone, who became the country’s first Official War Artist in 1916, captured the energy of the shipyards with crisp, almost machine‑like line work that turns a bustling dock into a visual manifesto of national effort.
In the image you can see cranes hunched over the water, cables stretched like the veins of the nation, and a crowd of workers—men, women, even children—assembling vessels that would soon sail into the Atlantic. The lithographic process gives the scene a tactile quality, each stroke deliberate, echoing the deliberate precision of shipbuilding itself.
Beyond the shipyard, the print tells a broader story: Bone’s work was popular in the 1920s, and he later joined the Artists Against Fascism and War exhibition in 1935, reinforcing the role of art as a civic voice. His legacy also lives on through his son, Stephen, who helped support artists fleeing persecution. This print is a snapshot of that commitment, and a reminder of how art and industry can march together.
See it in person
Building Ships: A Shipyard is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
