The 1940s were dominated by the events of the Second World War, which ended in 1945. 

In Britain the destruction of war led to more documentary styles of artistic expression. The British government commissioned artists to document lives in towns and villages across the country for a project called ‘Recording Britain.’ It was intended to boost national morale during the Second World War by celebrating the nation’s landscape and architecture.

The government-led project is likely to have played a part in the development of Neo-Romanticism. Other artistic movements of the 1940s include Abstract Expressionism in America, its European equivalent Tachism and the St Ives School.