A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London

Anna Airy was one of the first women to be officially commissioned as a war artist. She was commissioned by the Munitions Committee of the Imperial War Museum in June 1918 to produce four paintings. These were to depict munitions production at a crucial stage in the First World War when the tactical use of heavy artillery had become central to the success of the Allied forces. 

We see the interior view of a shell forge showing the glowing hot shell cases emerging from the furnaces on the left of the composition. Munitions workers man the furnaces on the left; in the foreground is the back of a worker leaning over a glowing hot shell case. Sunlight streams in through the open wall on the right of the forge.