Post your favorite combat art.

[JFP54]

One of my favorite, and least known combat artists was Ivor Hele (1912-1993). He was commissioned by the Australian government and spent a year on the front lines in North Africa sketching. He then traveled to the Pacific (New Guinea) where he worked along side Australian troops fighting in the jungle until he was wounded. He lay unconscious for two days before being transported to a hospital in Australia to recover.

I like the desaturated color in this painting. It helps paint an appropriately somber mood.

 

Anyone else have any favorites?

 

 

JFP

[J.S.]

Kristopher Battles is a great one to study, as seeing works by a combat artist in the GWOT is very interesting to me. This drawing of Reservist Marines on a firing range is one of my favorites.

 

[JFP54]

I also like this one by Ivor Hele titled Grenade Throwing, Bobdubi Ridge. It's a vigorous piece that was painted in 1944 and suggests the physical endurance of the men.

 

JFP

 

[JFP54]

Here are WwII sketches made by the German artist Hans Liska.

 

 

[JFP54]

More Liska . . . .

[JFP54]

Here is one by Steinlien of French soldiers, dated 1916, titled; "His Wounded Comrade,"

 

 

 

[JFP54]

Needs bigger brush.

 

Official war artist Major Richard Jack poses by his painting. ‘The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915’ depicting Canadian soldiers making a stand against a German assault He painted this enormous work of art, with the canvas measuring 371.5 x 589.0cm (12 x 20 foot), in his London studio, c.1917. Commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund (CWMF),

 

[JFP54]

Here is an example of 'progressive', disrespectful art.

 

 

An installation of 1,000 casts of Russian, German and American combat helmets of WWII which also represent turtles, to denounce global violence, created by French artist Rachid Khimoune, is seen on Omaha Beach in Colleville sur Mer, western France, Sunday, June 5, 2011 at the eve of the D-Day Anniversary. (Vincent Michel/The Associated Press)

 

 

http://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/2011/06/06/d-dat-mermories-in-art-tnt-pga7-mon-tnt/

 

[JFP54]

Here is U.S. combat artist, Ed Reep.

 

"I fought the war more furiously perhaps with my paintbrush than with my weapons. And I always put myself ini a position where I could witness or b part of the fighting. That was my job, I felt. And I was young, kind of crazy, I suppose." Ed Reep

 

 

 

[JFP54]

Here are a few from Bill Draper. He went into the Navy at the start of the war and painted combat in the Aleutians and in the South Pacific. The upper portrait is Halsey, the lower right is Nimitz. The landing is at Saipan.

 

I knew Bil professionally. He was a portrait painter in New York city. He wore a funny hat and played the piano for his subjects during breaks. A sometimes hit-n-miss portrait painter as far as likeness. Quite a guy.

 

 

[JFP54]

This guy was one of the better ones. Howard Brodie. He worked as a sports artist for the San Francisco Chronicle when he enlisted. His work appeared in "Yank Magazine."

 

 

"I remember the young soldier well, he screamed, he was just out of control, and he screamed, and there was another soldier next to him who consoled him, and embraced him. That was a moving moment for me, to see that compassion in combat. And these are the things a person feels when he's in proximity to death - his buddy that next human being, that person in the foxhole is the most important person in your life."

.

[world war I nerd]

In the spring of 1918 the A.E.F. fielded eight official war artists during the Great War. This made WW I the very first war in which Uncle Sam had commissioned artists, armed with pencils, paper & paint to record American soldiers during a time of war.

 

The idea first began in May of 1917 with the Committee of Public Information, which had been established in April of that year to coordinate propaganda for the war effort. In July 1917 the U.S. Army Signal Corps began preparing plans to send Army artists to the front. However the more pressing business of war prevented the idea from moving forward.

 

In December of 1918 an officer in the Engineer Reserve Corps sought permission to pick up the ball that the Signal Corps had dropped. Permission to send four artists was granted by both the War Department and by General Pershing. Upon hearing that news, the Signal Corps, not wanting to be outdone by the Corps of Engineers, resurrected its war art program, requesting that four additional artists be allowed to work under the direction of the Signal Corps.

 

Thus a total of eight artists were selected by a committee - six book and magazine illustrators, one architect and one etcher. The average age of the artists was 40, and only one of them had prior military experience. Nevertheless, they were all commissioned as captains in the Engineer Reserve Corps in February of 1918. The only military training the A.E.F. artists received before being dispatched to France was a five minute briefing on the types of images they were to produce.

 

By May of 1918, all eight artists had been assigned to the Press & Censorship Division of the Intelligence Section of GHQ, A.E.F. General Staff. Armed with charcoal, inks, paints and brushes the artists were given two automobiles and permanent passes signed by French and American commanders which allowed them to travel literally anywhere. The only restrictions imposed on the artists were that they had to report their locations to their commander and submit monthly reports detailing their activities and works produced. The artists were also officially directed not to participate in actual combat.

 

They spent the next nine months roaming between the base ports and the front line trenches recording their impression of war. In all some 700 works which ranged from rough sketches to finished paintings were sent to A.E.F. Headquarters. From there photographic copies were made and after being passed by the censors the originals were shipped to the Chief of the Historical Branch, War Plans Division, General Staff in Washington DC. The artwork was then handed over to the Committee of Public Information to be transformed into home-front wartime propaganda.

 

Here are a few examples of the artwork created by the A.E.F's official war artists, as well as a few other unofficial A.E.F. war artists ...

 

Captain William J, Aylward concentrated his efforts on the AEF's ports and transportation systems.

 

"On the Trail of the Hun"

[world war I nerd]

Captain William J. Aylward - "German Prisoner Types"

[world war I nerd]

Captain Walter Jack Duncan artwork also focused primarily on the AEF's support services.

 

"Barber Shop and Red Cross Station" (detail)

[world war I nerd]

Captain Walter Jack Duncan - "Truck and Ambulance park"

[world war I nerd]

Captain Harvey Thomas Dunn committed the AEF in battle to both paper and canvas.

 

Details from "Sentry" (left) and "Victory March" (right)

[world war I nerd]

Captain Harvey Dunn - Detail from a larger painting titled, "They are Giving All" as used on a home-front poster and "Fighting Through the Barbed Wire"

[world war I nerd]

Captain George Mathew Harding began his WW I service as a member of the poster committee of the U.S. Navy Recruiting Service. While serving in the AEF, Dunn spent most of his time trying to satisfy the critics in Washington DC who complained that they were not getting enough action scenes.

 

In 1942 at age 60, Harding accepted a commission as a combat artist with the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Pacific Theater during WW II.

 

"1st Aid Station, Verdun Offensive"

[world war I nerd]

Captain George Mathew Harding - "Traffic to Mont St. Pere"

[world war I nerd]

Captain Wallace Morgan's ability to render pencil sketches rapidly and accurately allowed him to capture everything from aerodromes to assaults during his time with the AEF.

 

Numerous pen & ink sketches made by Morgan appeared in the "Stars and Stripes", the official newspaper of the AEF.

 

"Morning Wash Up"

[world war I nerd]

Captain Wallace Morgan - "Roadside Blacksmith"

[world war I nerd]

Captain Earnest Clifford Peixotto, because he was a formally trained architect, a number of Peixotto's works captured the architecture of Europe in great detail

 

"Neufmaison"

[world war I nerd]

Captain Andre J. Smith was an etcher and the only one of the artists with former military service. Thus he was placed in command of the the small group of AEF artists.

 

"3rd Army Cook" (detail)

[world war I nerd]

Captain Henry Everette Townsend also began his war service designing home-front propaganda and recruiting posters. Overseas he favored depicting the "human element" of both the victors and the vanquished.

 

"The Gas Alert"

[world war I nerd]

Cyrus Leroy Baldrige served in the Illinois National Guard on the Mexican border in 1916. He then volunteered to drive a truck for the French Army until he was transferred to the AEF. Although he was not an official AEF war artist, many of his drawings were featured in the official AEF newspaper, the "Stars and Stripes".

 

Untitled American Doughboy & "A Survivor of the Old Regular Army"