New online exhibit profiles WW II artist who painted lives of service women

She was the first female Canadian artist sent overseas to document the Second World War, and her work provides a rare glimpse into the lives of a groundbreaking group of women in the Canadian army. 

Molly Lamb Bobak joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps in 1942 after graduating from art school, seeking adventure and hoping to be noticed as a war artist.

The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa has now created an online exhibit of Bobak's work, helping raise the profile of an artist who sought to capture and elevate the day-to-day lives of the nearly 50,000 women who served in the Canadian army, navy and air force.

"It's a very significant body of work," said historian Stacey Barker, whose specialities include women and war. "She herself was a service woman. And this is really the only body of work that we have that depicts those subjects."

Although women weren't allowed near combat, the B.C.-born painter and sketch artist was permitted to travel overseas to London shortly after VE-Day.

Upon arrival, Bobak did what she was sent to do and began capturing the scenes around her — many of which she had privileged access to because of her enlistment.

"She depicted service women," Barker told CBC Radio's In Town and Out on Saturday. "Canadian Women's Army Corps members as they went about their day-to-day duties working as drivers, mechanics, in laundries, in offices or even mail."  

22,000 women served in army

Although women weren't initially allowed to join the war effort, the army and air force established women's service branches in 1941, with the navy following suit the following year.

Approximately 22,000 women ended up serving in the army alone, Barker said, but only 3,000 travelled across the Atlantic Ocean.  

Besides service women, Bobak also painted and sketched the aftermath of the war in London and northwest Europe, depicting the ruins left behind as the scars of battle.

"Everywhere we went, the people were so tired and weak," reads a quote from Bobak, part of the new exhibit. "I was never shocked — you aren't really when you are in the middle of things — and the people were wonderful. They had gone through hell and suffered beyond imagination."

The war also supplied endless inspiration. 

"Everywhere you turn there is something terrific to paint," another quote from Bobak reads. "I love the army and I'll keep on putting down what I see until the war is over."

Bobak worked tirelessly to gain recognition, according to the exhibit, and placed second in an army art contest in 1944. She lost to her future husband and fellow artist Bruno Bobak. 

In 1945, she was finally recognized as a war artist and promoted to lieutenant.

'Filled with life and personality'

After the war, Bobak settled in Fredericton with her husband and became acclaimed in Canada for her post-war paintings as well, particularly those that depicted large crowd scenes.

She was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1995, and died in 2014 at the age of 94.

"Her paintings are filled with life and personality," Barker said. "Every individual in those paintings — even when they're in a crowd — they seem to have a very distinct personality about them. You can see in her war art that's beginning to take root."

Barker hopes the online exhibit brings notice to Bobak's work, both during the war and afterward, back in Canada. 

"When you do military history, when you study the wars, it's good to be reminded that they were fought by real people," Barker said.

"When you look at her work, you can see that."