WWII combat artists

[DiabloTX]

When I as very young my father subscribed me to the Time-Life book series "World War II".  In those books were some art done by combat artitst covering the action.  Of all the artists, and in paricular this piece of art, that impacted me was Tom Lea.  This image haunted me for years after I first saw it.  The emotional impact on a young mind was immense.  

The Price by Tom Lea

[Leslie]

The painting is poorly done imo.  There may not have been time to finish it the way it could have been finished.  The right arm area is hastily done, and may not have been the artist's intent.  Or it might have been, but yes, it is shocking.

Not that good a painting.




Les

[Nefarious]

I have this in a book called WWII by James Jones.

It is all works by Combat Artists mostly US and British, but a few German and Japanese.

The Picture was painted on the island of Pelielu

And the Author descibed the painting was done in oils. Making it nearly impossible to create on a battlefield. The author makes notions that this could be something the artist created and didnt actually see, but was horrified by something deeply enough to paint it.

None the less its a ghastly picture, I like the drawings by Sgt Howard Brodie, like Massacre at Malmedy, Numbing Cold, and Battlefield Excecution. Those are very erie.

[DiabloTX]

Originally posted by Leslie
The painting is poorly done imo.  There may not have been time to finish it the way it could have been finished.  The right arm area is hastily done, and may not have been the artist's intent.  Or it might have been, but yes, it is shocking.

Not that good a painting.




Les

Tom Lea couldn't paint at the time of the action.  He had to make sketches during the action and then later using those sketches would he make a final oil painting.  I think that the fact that it is a little "unfinished" gives it a lyricism that reflects the emotion he was feeling at the time.  I find it to be a masterpiece.

[Leslie]

Have you read "Pelilu and Okinawa:  Last of the Old Breed."  There were no combat artists there.  It was forbidden to keep a diary or any information on paper.  If he painted that, he did it from memory and didn't have sketches.

According to Pvt. Sledge, no one there had anything like that.  An artist.  There were photographers there though.  So I suppose it's possible.   Pelilu was intense deadly combat, and very few people survived on either side.  The Japanese got the worst of it.  I think the Marines lost 5000 men.  The Japanese 20,000.

Read the book "On Pelilu and Okinawa: The Last of the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge from Mobile.




Les