Will Longstaff was an artist who excelled at night-time scenes with monumental architecture and people portrayed in moonlight. Longstaff painted only four or possibly five known war memorial compositions and a small series of London night-time scene watercolours, preferring to focus on landscapes, portraits, and still lifes.

Menin Gate at Midnight was painted to commemorate those soldiers with no marked graves on the Western Front during the First World War. Longstaff attended a ceremony dedicating the Menin Gate memorial to the soldiers of the British empire forces, just outside the town of Ypres, Belgium, on 24 July 1927. The painting caused a sensation and was bought by Lord Woolavington for the remarkable sum of £...