During the Second World War Claude Muncaster served as a
lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and
also as a camouflage advisor to the Admiralty. As an artist with
considerable sailing experience, he was well versed in the weather
patterns, colours and tones found at sea. Importantly he was able to
distinguish the different needs for camouflage between the Atlantic
and Mediterranean. As a result he travelled extensively and the present
works were made in the North African desert whilst on a special
camouflage mission abroad in 1943. Muncaster sketched almost
everywhere he went as he sought to document and engage with the
ever-changing environment he found himself in.