Bethia Clarke (1867-1959) Paper Sir? detail, oil on canvas

A MASTERFUL painting of a “rheumy-eyed” vendor dispensing news of impending war takes centre stage in an exhibition about the impact of 20th-century wars on the lives of working female artists.

Slade-trained Bethia Clarke’s genre scene is part of a 15th anniversary show of The War and Women Artists series by Sim Fine Art in Mayfair.

The gallery said the news-seller is “depicted rheumy-eyed and vulnerable against a backdrop of headlines prophesying war and destruction that seem to belong to a modern era that has left him behind”.

The Holding the Line exhibition aims to reveal human stories of the London Blitz and has been put together by “war art man”, Andrew Sim.

He told Extra: “I find it very rewarding to do and the stories told are poignant and touching. I can relate, as my own mother and grandmother were in the Blitz.

“Starting out, a couple of exhibitions went well and 15 years later here I am known as the war art man. I am very interested in pieces that tell a story and I’m not even a militaristic person, but I love art that tells a story over abstract art. World War II is perfect for that.”

As an ex-journalist he said was interested in pictures that tell stories and that the art coming out of the world wars conveyed great social upheaval.

Mr Sim works side by side with his wife to curate the exhibitions that have become an established feature of the London art world.

Previous exhibitions have unearthed pieces that have never before been seen in public.

Works from neglected female war artists and even rediscovered major lost works by official artists, including Evelyn Dunbar, whose Land Girls stooking picture had disappeared from view for 70 years before it was rediscovered by the gallery.

In information on the website, the art dealer’s said that: “Dunbar’s personal and working life was marked, like so many upper class women of her time, by both privilege and tragedy, buoyed by an unprecedented level of educational and social opportunity and yet, in the end, blighted by war, changes in artistic fashion and an art establishment still dominated by male cliques.”

• Exhibition No.15 The War and Women Artists is on at 54 The Gallery, Shepherd Market, Mayfair, from November 4-10.