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Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Thomas Baumgartner

Posted on June 5, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 4 comments

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, photographers and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Thomas Baumgartner

Born in Munich in 15 July 1892, Thomas Baumgartner was a Bavarian through and through. Studying at the Aktklasse at the Munich Academy from 1911, he was awarded the prestigious Goldene Medaille from the Münchner Glaspalast following exhibition of his works, including that of General Von Keller in particular.

Specializing in portraits, the young man was not picky about who he painted, spending the same amount of time and attention on both high society and common man

Portrait of Bavarian author Ludwig Thoma by Thomas Baumgartner 1912. This image was oddly enough used by a brand of beer and thus on beer steins in Munich for years.

Bavarian Koenig Ludwig III

During the Great War, Baumgartner was tapped to continue to craft portraits of high-ranking Bavarian and other German officers, as well as a wonderful series of paintings of captured Allied troops highlighting their uniforms in 1916.

Assorted Russians from three different regiments, with the soldier in the center wearing the typical short cap of those worn by Tsarist Rifles battalion.

Portraits of soldiers first world war by Thomas Baumgartner (1892-1962) 8

Asiatic Russians. The one on the right is a junior NCO, a lance sergeant, as noted by his pogoni (shoulder boards) too bad you can’t make out the regimental number

Portraits of soldiers first world war by Thomas Baumgartner (1892-1962) 9

Note the scars on these West African French soldiers, likely from Senegal

Portraits of soldiers first world war by Thomas Baumgartner (1892-1962) 7

Asian Commonwealth soldiers, likely from the Malay Rifles though it is broadly possible though unlikely they are from “The Suicide Battalion” 46th Battalion (South Saskatchewan), CEF due to the battalion insignia. The 10th Regiment (1st Burma Rifles) Madras Infantry was formed during the war, but served in the Middle East after Baumgartner painted this picture, making it unlikely these men were from that unit.

Portraits of soldiers first world war by Thomas Baumgartner (1892-1962) 6

British Indian troops

French Tirailleur Algerians

Nepalese Gurhkas

Scots, with tartans very close to that of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

Portraits of soldiers first world war by Thomas Baumgartner (1892-1962)

British commonwealth troops, possibly from the West Indies but it’s hard to tell without shoulder or collar insignia

After the War, Baumgartner resumed his more traditional work.

In the 1920s he became first a regular contributor then later an editor for Jugend (Youth) magazine, a Bavarian art journal that popularized “Jugendstil” a sort of German art nouveau style that remained well liked through the Wiemar era while the style lost favor in the rest of the world.

Jugend remained in publication, though heavily edited, after the Nazis came to power, until 1940 when it folded for good. After all, Hitler thought himself both something of an artist and a Bavarian.

This led Baumgartner into some very dark works during the 1930s and 40s including Der Kampf des Arztes mit dem Tod but was nonetheless an “approved artist” under National Socialism and during the same time provided portrait services to many in the upper level of the Third Reich, which I don’t have the stomach to repeat here.

He was one of the driving forces behind founding the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art) in Munich.

Baumgartner survived the war and lived until 1962, returning to the occasional portrait of those close to him in the twilight of his life.

Baumgartner’s neighbor in Kreuth, farmer Lorenz Hagen, who was 99 years and 9 months old when painted.

Some 46 of his paintings are in the collection of the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek and his traditional portraits trade modestly.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Ferdinand Petrie

Posted on May 22, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Ferdinand Petrie

Born in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1925, Ferdinand Ralph Petrie completed his art training at thet Parsons School of Design and The Famous Artist School of Illustration. He also studied painting with Frank Reilly at The Art Students League in New York.

Following World War II service, he worked for 20 years in advertising agencies and studios in New York City, then began painting full time, specializing in pencil and watercolors.

In 1972, he opened his own studio in Rockport, Massachusetts and created a number of contemporary works.

#3 High Street

The Cove

It was during this time that he began a series of studies for the Navy and Coast Guard over more than a decade which inspire and endure.

USCG Icebreaker by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 87136). The Coast Guard medium harbor tug SNOHOMISH (WYTM-98) on a search and rescue mission in floating ice off Rockland, MA. Snohomish was a 110-foot armed tug commissioned 24 January 1944 and served in the Boston Naval District in WWII. Peacetime service saw everything from busting poachers and drug runners to saving Gotham from her own trash during the garbage collection strike in 1980. Decommissioned 1986, she endured as a yacht and commercial vessel for another 20 years, dropping off the radar in 2005.

Drug Patrol Duty by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 87942). A Coast Guardsman mans an M60 machine gun on board a cutter out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, keeping a suspected drug runner under close observation.

Snohomish by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 88015). The CGC SNOHOMISH looms in the background as crew members of a 44- foot patrol boat wave in passing.

Learning the Art of Tying Knots by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 90405). Two young “Coasties” practice the skill of tying knots.

Ready for Patrol Duty by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 88329). MK2 Rick Cremean’s equipment for patrol duty consists of an M-16, a 45, life jacket, flashlight and handcuffs at Coast Guard Station, Gloucester, Mass.

Getting Aboard from USCGC Ocracoke by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90233). A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner's vessel in the Caribbean.

USCGC Ocracoke (WPB-1307) by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90233). A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner’s vessel, the Dealer’s Choice in the Caribbean. Ocracoke has chalked up a number of big busts on her yearly Florida-Gitmo deployments including3,771 pounds (1.9 tons) aboard the La Toto off the northwest coast of St. Croix in 1987

Search and Rescue on the Great Lakes by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 89510). The Coast Guard Icebreaker SNOHOMISH prepares to cast off a small boat for a search and rescue mission an HH3F “Pelican” helicopter stands by to assist.

Ladies in Waiting by Ferdinand Petrie. Two small boats tied up at pier awaiting duty off Gloucester, Mass.

Omiaria boarded by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90234)

Getting Aboard from USCGC Ocracoke by Ferdinand Petrie. A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner’s vessel, the Omiaria , in the Caribbean. A 110-foot Island-class patrol cutter, she was commissioned in 1986 and has spent her career based out of Portland, Maine, earning a fair bit of notoriety for rescuing the Canadian sailing ship Liana’s Ransom. She is still on active duty.

Ferdinand Petrie died in 2007 but he has several books penned in the 1990s in circulation on the subject of art with a few still in publication. His art is in the Smithsonian, the Coast Guard Museum in New London, and in the Navy Art Collection.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Thomas Hennell

Posted on May 15, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Thomas Hennell

Born 16 April 1903 in Ridley, Kent, Thomas Barclay Hennell was the son of a good Protestant minister who studied at Regent Street Polytechnic before teaching art at various schools in Bath and Bruton in the late 1920s and 30s.

He specialized in watercolors, such as this vivid one, entitled “Interior” produced in 1930 and in the collection of the Tate.

Interior c.1930-2 Thomas Hennell 1903-1945 Purchased 1940 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05411

Then, in 1932 long term problems with schizophrenia led to a nervous breakdown.

This break with reality led to a three-year stay at the infamous Maudsley psychiatric hospital in South London, which Hennell wrote of in the autobiographical study, “The Witnesses” one of the few period pieces about mental illness and how it was perceived.

Besides The Witnesses, he also wrote Change in the Farm (1936), Poems (1936), British Craftsmen (1943) and The Countryman at Work (which was published 1947, after his untimely death) and provided illustrations for nearly a dozen more. He became an accepted member of the Royal Watercolour Society and exhibited in the New English Art Club.

When he emerged from Maudsley, his work was a bit darker. Compare these with Interior above.

Landscape: Flint Heap, Road-Making c.1937-41 Thomas Hennell 1903-1945 Presented anonymously 1941 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05287

The Tree c.1938-40 Thomas Hennell 1903-1945 Purchased 1940 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05412

When the War came in 1939, the 36 year old sought and obtained a commission as an official war artist for the Ministry of Information and roamed from Reykjavik to Flanders to the Far East sketching and painting.

A view of the Royal Navy submarine HMS Rorqual (N74) in a dry dock at Portsmouth. The submarine is a rusty orange colour and is supported by a series of steel struts. Numerous workmen are busy on the vessel and the surrounding dock, with a large crane to the left and a barrage balloon immediately above. HMS Rorqual was a Grampus-class minelaying sub commissioned 10 February 1937. Her mines chalked up more than 25 Axis ships in the Med and Pacific. She was broken up on 17 March 1946.

The interior of the engine room of Attacker-class Royal Navy escort aircraft carrier HMS Hunter (D80), with three crew members busying themselves and a further two men visible in the background. The two foremost men are both bare-chested, emphasizing the heat of the engine room, which is a confusing mass of pipes and metal work. Hunter started life as the USS Block Island (CVE-8), built in Pascagoula, and was converted back to a merchant hull, Almdijk, after the war, broken up in 1965.

HMS Hunter One sailor can be seen rolling up a yellow parachute on a large table while another carries a rolled parachute above his head. A third soldier stands to the right, in front of a fourth soldier who sits at a sewing machine

HMS Hunter parachute rigging compartment. One sailor can be seen rolling up a yellow parachute on a large table while another carries a rolled parachute above his head. A third soldier stands to the right, in front of a fourth soldier who sits at a sewing machine

A Dutch concrete stronghold at Nijemgen, 1944

Gun-Team Firing in the Rain, Normandy June 1944

Boulogne Bassin-a-Flot

Calais: La Tour de Guet and the Ruins of the Museum

An AA Battery in Holland January 1945

Pioneers on a frozen road at Kapelle

A view from the bridge of HMS Nelson, looking down onto the crowded deck towards the Japanese vessel in the upper right. Sept 1945.

After the war, he remained in the conflict-plagued Far East and was captured by Indonesian terrorists in Batavia, November 1945, and was never seen again. He was 42 when he vanished into the jungle.

The Imperial War Museum holds no less than 90 of his works and other pieces are on display at the Tate and elsewhere.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Timothy H. O’Sullivan

Posted on May 8, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Timothy H. O’Sullivan

Irish-born Timothy H. O’Sullivan came to the United States while still a toddler and, like many in the great Potato Famine diaspora, settled in the New York City area.

As a teen he found work with a man who had a daguerreotype studio in the great city by the name of Mathew B. Brady. While there, O’Sullivan was exposed to early and experimental ambrotype photography and later albumen print from glass negatives– including cheap cartes de visite studio portraits which Brady was a master of.

When the Civil War came, (according to some, there are skeptics) O’Sullivan, then 21, joined the Union Army as an officer in the U.S. Topographical Engineers and likely served with surveying teams where his knowledge of photography aided him. Eventually, he found himself as a civilian again working for Mr. Brady (who was going blind), along with no less than 20 other budding photographers which were in effect the first combat photojournalists.

Using a traveling darkroom, by July 1862 O’Sullivan was off to cover the war as a civilian again. He eventually found himself partnered up with Scotsman Alexander Gardner, who at one time had managed Brady’s Washington D.C. studio before the War and had worked with O’Sullivan as a Captain in the Topographical Engineers (and chief army photographer).

The two covered the Antietam Campaign and many of their images were misattributed to Brady himself.

The two covered Gettysburg, where they famously manipulated the setting of the Rebel Sharpshooter photograph, with O’Sullivan helping him drag the body to a more advantageous position of the Devil’s Den, complete with prop rifle.

Rocks could not save him at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa. July 1863. This image is not colorised, it is produced from the original glass negative at the LOC on color paper. It is perhaps O'Sullivan's most (in)famous image.

“Rocks could not save him at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa. July 1863.” This image is not colorized, it is produced from the original glass negative at the LOC on color paper. It is perhaps O’Sullivan’s most (in)famous image.

While the photographer took liberties with Confederate dead, he also had a good eye for then exotic military equipment, ruins of historic battles, and the staffs of generals, NCO messes, and rank and file alike.

High bridge, Appomattox, Va.

Pontoon wagon and boat, 50th New York Engineers, Rappahannock (i.e. Brandy) Station, Va., March, (i.e. Feb.) 1864

Sherman

Petersburg, Va. Two youthful military telegraph operators at headquarters. O’Sullivan took photos of generals and enlisted alike

Bull Run, Virginia (vicinity). Col. Alfred Duffie, 1st Rhode Island Cavalry

Gen. George G. Meade and staff, Culpeper, Va. Sept. 1863

Co. B, U.S. Engineers in front of Petersburg, Va., August, 1864 Sgt. Harlan Cobb seated on the ground, third from left, wearing a vest.

“The Halt” Captain Harry Page, quartermaster at Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, his horse, and another man at rest, after locating a spot for camp

Gen. Joseph Hooker and staff, Falmouth, Va., June 1863

Fort Pulaski, Ga. Dismounted mortar Feb 1862

Fort Fisher Stereograph showing a Confederate soldier in the battery with an English Armstrong gun. Three men stand behind him

Quaker Guns! mock battery erected by the 79th New York Volunteers at Seabrook Point, Port Royal Island, South Carolina.

McLean’s House, Appomattox, Va., scene of General Lee’s surrender

He was present at just about every major battle in Northern Virginia as well as the taking of several Rebel seacoast forts.

His former buddy Gardner ripped him off considerably, using many of O’Sullivan’s images from Antietam in his own Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, but it was the Irishman who came out on top, being tapped to accompany several expeditions for the government to Panama, the American West, and elsewhere while Gardner’s book flopped.

Cereus giganteus, Arizona 1871. When images like this made it back to the East Coast, they were a magic portal to the exotic West that many could not imagine.

War chief of the Zuni Indians.

Apache scouts, at Apache Lake, Sierra Blanca Range

Expedition exploring boat, Truckee River. O’Sullivan almost died when this boat collapsed, losing most of his equipment and hundreds of negatives.

Soldier and family Ft. Garland, Colo 1874

Washakie Bad Lands, Wyoming 1872 Sullivan is in the shot.

Brady did not fare much better. Bankrupt after the war as the Government refused to actually buy any of his stack of more than 10,000 plates, he sold everything he owned and closed his New York City studio, dying penniless at Presbyterian Hospital and interred in a simple grave.

For O’Sullivan, though successful he did not get to enjoy a long life. In his 40s, his traveling days were over, having contracted TB. He settled in the Washington D.C. area, splitting his time as the official photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey and the Treasury Department. He died in 1882.

Over 1,300 of O’Sullivan’s works are in the Library of Congress and have been reproduced extensively across a myriad of formats.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Col. John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

Posted on April 10, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 4 comments

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Col. John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

Born in Huntsville, Texas, 28 February 1893, John Thomason was a Southerner with a family tree steeped in military tradition. His grandfather was no less a person than Thomas Jewett “TJ” Goree, one of Longstreet’s closest aides, who was immortalized in Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels.

Goree

An uncle and four great-uncles had also been Confederate officers. As noted by Donald Morris in an excellent 1993 article on Thomason, Grandfather Goree was closer to John than his father was, and taught him to ride, hunt, and fish while he developed a passion for sketching.

It should have come as no surprise that, after spending two years at the Art Students League in New York City, and a year as a cub reporter for the Houston Chronicle while training at civilian military camps during the summers, that Thomason rushed to join the Marines when the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917.

Not too much difference from Gramps…

After a good bit of stateside training, 1st Lt. John W. Thomason, Jr., U.S.M.C., arrived in France in May 1918, in the 1/5 Marines, part of the 2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces. Fighting with his platoon (and later as Executive Officer of the 49th Company) in five major engagements and fourteen battles, including Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry, San Mihiel, Soissons, and Mont Blanc, Thomason led from the front.

As noted by the Naval History and Heritage Command, “When a German machine gun nest held up a Marine advance at Soissons 18 July 1918, Thomason and one of his men fearlessly advanced on the position and killed 13 of the enemy. For his heroism he received the Navy Cross and the Silver Star.”

5TH MARINES AT CHAMPAGNE Champagne, France 1918. By John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

Remaining in the Marines during the “peacetime” between the two World Wars, Thomason found time to write and illustrate together no less than 11 books including Fix Bayonets (1926), Jeb Stuart (1930), Gone to Texas (1937), and Lone Star Preacher (1941) while serving a very diverse career that included deploying to Cuba, Nicaragua, China (where he was at the Legation in Peking in the 1930s and documented the China horse marines in his sketches during his time as the commander of the 38th Company); served as commander of the 103-man Marine det on the cruiser USS Rochester; serving as an aide to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Col. Henry Roosevelt; and worked at the Latin-American desk of the Office of Naval Intelligence just prior to Pearl Harbor.

The Automatic Riflemen, Fix Bayonets

China Horse Marine

Chinese soldier on horseback

Cantonese soldiers in China 1932

When WWII came to the U.S., Thomason was made a Colonel attached to Nimtz’s staff and, though in poor health due to ulcers and cardiovascular issues, served as war-plans officer and inspector of Marine land bases. He toured forward areas in the Solomons and survived a Japanese air attack that left all the other men in his slit trench dead.

Coming down with double pneumonia and his health continuing to decline, he was released and shipped back to the West Coast for stateside duty. There, at the Naval Hospital at San Diego on March 12, 1944, he died at age 51.

A well-known author and something of the W.E.B. Griffin of his time, he was carried by special train to Oakwood Cemetery, Huntsville, while the state of Texas lowered flags to half-staff for the week of his interment.

Recognizing his service, SECNAV named the new Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, DD-760, after the late Col. Thomason 30 September 1944; sponsored by his widow. USS John W. Thomason remained on the Navy List, seeing action in Korea and Vietnam and having 10 battlestars to show for it, until 1974 when she was transferred to the Republic of China, serving as the ROCS Nan Yang (DD-17) until 2000.

As for the author, his bestseller Fix Bayonets is still in publication and is considered by many to be perhaps the finest account of Americans in the Great War.

His portrait hangs in the Texas Hall of Heroes at the Capitol in Austin. In addition, the Graphic Arts Building at Sam Houston State University bears his name, as does the special collections room of the university library, which houses a permanent exhibit of his drawings and manuscripts. The University of Texas at Austin also holds a number of his papers.

Besides the extensive collection maintained by the Navy and Marines, Sam Houston University’s Newton Gresham Library has over 3,900 of his works ranging from photos to sketches to paintings online.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of RV Pitchforth

Posted on April 3, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of RV Pitchforth

Roland Vivian Pitchforth was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 25 April 1895. Studying at the Wakefield School of Art and Leeds College, his formal art education was interrupted by the Great War when Pitchforth volunteered for Wakefield’s own 106th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.

After seeing the elephant on the Western Front, from which he always carried a hearing loss, he soon became an art instructor himself, teaching at the Clapham School of Art, St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in the 1920s and 1930s while producing very British watercolors.

Floods circa 1935 Roland Vivian Pitchforth 1895-1982 Purchased 1938 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N04933

Floods circa 1935 Roland Vivian Pitchforth, From the Tate

View of Harbour - Folkestone circa 1920 Roland Vivian Pitchforth 1895-1982 Bequeathed by the artist 1983 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T03663

View of Harbour – Folkestone circa 1920 Roland Vivian Pitchforth 1895-1982 Bequeathed by the artist 1983. In the Tate collection.

When the Second World War came, the still spry 43-year-old partially deaf art teacher volunteered once more and became an official war artist for the Ministry of Information, and then later for the Admiralty, under the aegis of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee as a temporary captain in the Royal Marines

In the early months of his appointment, he painted coastal boats and seaplanes in action and traveled on convoys to the Azores and Gibraltar, often seeing combat first hand while armed with only a sketchbook.

three Kingfisher seaplanes stand in an aerodrome consisting of corrugated metal hangars painted with camouflage patterns Pitchforth, Roland Vivian

3 Kingfisher seaplanes stand in an aerodrome consisting of corrugated metal hangars painted with camouflage patterns Pitchforth, Roland Vivian

Seafox heading down a slipway, surrounded by sailors. Ahead, a second plane is already in the water

Pitchforth, Roland Vivian Protection Pits for Dispersed Aircraft, Lee-on-Solent landbase floatless kingfisher swordfish

Protection Pits for Dispersed Aircraft, Lee-on-Solent, note the landbased float-less Kingfisher in the foreground and the Swordfish in the back

grey-coloured Swordfish sitting on a runway, facing away from the artist Pitchforth, Roland Vivian note the contrasting shadows

Grey-colored Swordfish sitting on a runway, facing away from the artist Pitchforth, Roland Vivian note the contrasting shadows

Hurricane Test Pilots, Henlow

Activities begin as soon as the mist blows out to Sea, 1942. In the foreground, a Short Sunderland prepares for take-off on a calm sea. To the right there is a dense wall of pink-colored mist, and further out to sea there are three large ships. This is one of the more artistic war paintings I have seen.

HMS Brecon escorting an Aircraft carrier from Algiers. Brecon (L76) was a 1,900-ton Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that was present at almost every major amphibious landing in the Med and took part in the sinking of the German submarines U-450 and U-407.

A Parachute-landing 1940

Motor Gun-boats going on Operations 1943 note the calm turquoise sea

Night Exercises in Plymouth Sound

Motor Gun-boats in a Night Action

HM Submarine Torbay in Dry Dock at Plymouth, 1942. A T-class sub, Torbay, (N79) had the misfortune of being involved in two incidents regarded by many as war crimes when her skipper was accused of ordering his crew to fire on Axis troops as they swam in the water during Med ops.

HMS Eskimo and other Destroyers Fitting Out at Durban. Note how the bollard frames the work and if you didn’t know better, would think is the subject. Eskimo (F75) was a Tribal-class destroyer that was a bruiser. She fought in Norway (losing her bow at Narvik), the Mediterranean (being blown apart by German dive-bombers), the English Channel and in Burma. She chalked up U-971.

He also covered the war effort at home and the Blitz firsthand when he wasn’t white-knuckling destroyers at sea.

The bomb damaged House of Commons in Westminster after an air raid, 1941

View inside a bombed telephone exchange, filled with piles of wires and rubble 1941

Post office building 1941

The City Temple Church, London, EC4

Snack Time in a Factory 1941

Towards the end of the war, Pitchforth spent most of 1944 in the Med and was sent out to the Far East, witnessing the end-game of the Burma campaign.

Convoy leaving Gibraltar 1944

Loading an English Carrier and the French Cruiser ‘Gloire’ at Algiers. This watercolor is particularly interesting for its depiction of ‘dazzle’ painting, a technique designed to disguise the hulls of ships and render them less visible as targets. On 18 September 1940, Gloire’was intercepted by the British and brought to port in Casablanca where she was neutralized and worked with the Allies the rest of the war. Notably, she remained in service into 1958, spending most of her post-WWII life in Indochine waters.

He made numerous watercolors of Colombo Harbor in Ceylon before joining the combined amphibious and airborne attack on Rangoon with the commandos during which he improvised a scheme for painting camouflage on the amphibious landing craft to minimize the threat of airborne attack.

First British Troops in Rangoon 1945. Note the landing craft

Picking up a severe lung infection in Burma, he was invalided out in South Africa and remained there until able to travel again in 1948, returning to London.

Cruiser HMS Enterprise at Simonstown, South Africa: Christmas 1945. Enterprise (D52) was an obsolete 7500-ton WWI-era Emerald-class light cruiser brought out of retirement during WWII and used for escort duties and naval gunfire support, firing over 9,000 rounds on D-Day alone. Ironically, the old behemoth sank a German torpedo boat with a torpedo, which is something I didn't know was even possible. When Pitchforth ran across her, she was in the last days of her service, helping return British troops from Asia and Africa before being broken up. Pitchford was in South Africa at this time recovering from his own war aliments. In many ways, when he painted this work, Pitchforth and Enterprise were the same.

Cruiser HMS Enterprise at Simonstown, South Africa: Christmas 1945. Enterprise (D52) was an obsolete 7500-ton WWI-era Emerald-class light cruiser that carried Ethiopian King Haile Selassie into exile in 1937. Brought out of retirement during WWII she was used for escort duties and naval gunfire support, firing over 9,000 rounds on D-Day alone. Ironically, the old behemoth even sank a German torpedo boat with a torpedo, which is the ultimate in irony. When Pitchforth ran across her, she was in the last days of her service, helping return British troops from Asia and Africa before being broken up. Pitchford was in South Africa at this time recovering from his own war aliments. In many ways when he painted this work, Pitchforth and Enterprise were the same.

Now in his 50s and a veteran of both World Wars, Pitchforth returned to teaching for another 20 years, and was made a Senior at the Royal Academy and a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

He passed in 1982 at age 87.

The Imperial War Museum has 90~ pieces of his art online, many in high rez, while other works are in the MoD collection the GAC, indexed through Art UK and at the Tate in Liverpool.

An extensive bio is here.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of John Falter

Posted on March 20, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of John Falter

John Philip Falter was born during in 1910 Plattsmouth, Nebraska. In high school, the enterprising young man created his own comic strip which helped gain him a spot at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1928, then the Art Students League of New York City (briefly, like a month type of briefly) and the Grand Central School of Art.

Gaining work producing pulp covers, his first steady work came when he was paid to create three illustrations a week for Liberty Magazine in 1933 and was soon getting on in advertising slicks for everyone from Vultee to Pall Mall.

Adventures of the Blackgang

When WWII came to the States, the 32 year old illustrator signed up for the Navy and was soon put to work making recruiting posters and other illustrations for use by the sea service, soon garnering the rank of a full lieutenant in the Reserve.

John Falter’s Hit Hard! Hit Fast! Hit Often! of 1944 pictures a view from the bridge of a carrier. The poster’s hero is Admiral ‘Bull’ Halsey, Commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, shown leaning forward to take on the enemy wearing his navy flight jacket and holding high powered binoculars.

The man we look up to, Vultee Aircraft, 1943, John Falter

Note how Falter signed these Navy posters as "Lt, USNR"

Note how Falter signed these Navy posters as “USNR”

One print produced by Falter, A Strange sort of Prayer, is a haunting depiction of a Marine on a far off beach saying a blessing over the destroyed pillbox of a Japanese machine gun nest, “You see, God, I’d like to get home too.”

A Strange sort of Prayer (John Falter, 1945 Navy Poster, industrial incentive division)

It was not his only religious-themed military work during the war.

By His Deeds…Measure Yours was published in LIFE and the Cornet

No More Mr. Nice Guy

He is best know for his recruiting posters and pamphlet illustrations for the U.S. Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve), better known under the acronym WAVES for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, established in the tale end of 1942.

WAVE At War, Ships At Night .NHC Accession #: 45-127-N “WAVES were not eligible for combat duty. Their assignments remained stateside or in the territories of Hawaii and Alaska. But recruiting posters often depicted the contributions of WAVES to combat victories. Here, Falter superimposes a female enlistee over a battle scene, as though she stands for all the WAVES-parachute riggers, machinists’ mates, gunners’ mates, and others who will make this victory possible. This type of image not only brought in new recruits, but it boosted morale among the WAVES, reminding them that their work was directly impacting the war effort and strengthening the might of Navy forces.”

WAVE With a Silhouette Of a Machine Gun. NHC Accession #: 45-127-O. At Treasure Island in San Francisco, WAVES served as gunnery instructors, teaching sailors how to shoot anti-aircraft guns. Women received this specialized training at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois.

WAVE With a Silhouette Of a 40mm Bofors Gun. NHC Accession #: 45-127-O. At Treasure Island in San Francisco, WAVES served as gunnery instructors, teaching sailors how to shoot anti-aircraft guns. Women received this specialized training at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois.

Note the control tower operator “T” rate on the WAVE PO3. By the end of the War, it was common at the myriad of stateside bases that had sprung up since 1942 for WAVES to be running most of the show.

WAVE Parachute Rigger, NHC Accession #: 45-127-I. Falter used an official Navy photograph as the source for this painting. The photograph appears in a recruiting pamphlet printed in February 1944, the same month the Navy printed 40,000 posters and 45,000 window cards of this painting alone, shown below.

During the War, he also started producing covers for the Saturday Evening Post, which he continued to do for decades after the end of hostilities, making a total of 129 covers by the late 1960s. Many of these today look like storyboards from Mad Men.

Golf – 1950s style – by John Falter

Frosty in the Freezer by John Falter

First weekend at the cottage, home life in America 1954

Snowy Ambush by John Falter

In 1974 he was commissioned to do a series of six paintings for the American Bicentennial of 1976 by the 3M Company entitled “From Sea to Shining Sea.”

Besides this, he produced 200 paintings in the field of Western art, dozens of book covers from everything from Mark Twain to The Scarlet Pimpernel. His work also appeared in Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, McCall’s, Life, and Look.

In all, Falter is believed to have produced more than 5,000 works by the time of his death in 1982 at 72.

The Naval History and Heritage Command has some 60~ or so images on line in their database from Mr. Falter, some in very high res while the Museum of Nebraska Art and Nebraska Historical Foundation has his papers and several other images to include a series of portraits he did in the 1960s and 70s of famous jazz musicians.

And of course, the Saturday Evening Post has about 80 of his covers online.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Combat Gallery Sunday: More Hugault

Posted on March 6, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Combat Gallery Sunday: More Hugault

We’ve always been a big fan of French aviation artist Romain Hugault and have covered his work a couple of times here on the site.

While a relative youngster (born in 1979) his work has gained international acclaim. The son of a military pilot, he earned his own pilot’s license at age 17.

With his first work, Le Dernier Envol, was published in 2005. Since then he hasn’t turned back and in the past decade has become a favorite aircraft illustrator of airshow posters, calendars, military prints, and the like. Among his best-known work is his illustrated novels Le Pilote à l’Edelweiss, and Le Grand Duc.

Then there is scriptwriter Yann who along with Hugault created “Angel Wings” which delves into the universe of the actual 10th U.S. Army Air Force’s 80th Fighter Group, specifically the 89th FS known to history as the famous Burma Banshees.

From Hugault’s blog (mechanically translated)

The story takes place in the heart of the Burmese jungle during the Second World War, and introduces the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). In 1944, the Japanese forces occupy the whole of Burma and continue to advance towards India and China. The pilots of the American forces are attempting to help their allies by carrying out continuous airlifts with these two countries.

Angela Mc Cloud, a female pilot at the controls of a “C-47 Dakota”, is on an official mission to fly over the “Hump”, the eastern Himalayas, in order to provide the Chinese troops with weapons and equipment and tip the scales in the war. More secretly, her superiors have entrusted her with a more perilous mission – that of investigating what is disrupting air traffic on the Burmese front.

Even though women pilots are not authorized to fly over the Burmese front, “Angel” will have to prove herself in order to win the respect of the “Burma Banshees”.

His website

Thank you for your work, sir.

P.S. For reference, below is real-life U.S. Army Air Force pilot, Shirley Slade, a WWII WASP who ferried B-26 and B-29 bombers and, I think, carries a passing resemblance to Angela McCloud. Just saying.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Vietnam Combat Artists Program

Posted on February 28, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Vietnam Combat Artists Program

Usually on CGS, we cover individuals, but this particular weekend is dedicated to the 40~ soldier artists of the U.S. Army’s Vietnam Combat Artists Program:

Between 15 AUG 1966 and 14 JAN 1970, nine Combat Artist Teams (CATs) operated in Vietnam traveling with various units, gathering information and making sketches of U.S. Army related activities. They would embed with troops on the ground for 60 days then rotate to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii for 75 days to decompress and paint from their sketches, photographs and imagination. The work then became government property curated by the U.S. Army Center of Military History to help document the war.

Private First Class Jim Pollock was sent to Vietnam as a soldier artist on US Army Vietnam Combat Art Team IV from Aug. 15 to Dec. 31 1967 and has a 26 page article (with more than a dozen varied images) of his experience online. In this work he described the varied nature of the art produced.

The idea of rotating teams of young soldier-artists from a variety of backgrounds and experiences through Vietnam was innovative. What was even more remarkable is that these soldier-artists were encouraged to freely express and interpret their individual experience in their own distinct styles. The artists responded enthusiastically to their artistic free reign, and the resulting products were wide-ranging and comprehensive.

Styles and media used were as diverse as the artists themselves, some chose detailed literal images while others preferred expressive almost abstract explosions striving to replicate the horrors of war. Certainly, a lasting legacy of the army’s soldier art program is that it helped bring military art into the modern era.

After the Battle Tan Hep, Vietnam By Michael R. Crook, 1967.

COMBAT IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS Vietnam by Bruce J. Anderson

Member of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol by Bruce J. Anderson, Vietnam

Soldiers Getting the Word by Theodore J. Abraham Vietnam

Mortar Attack Counterfire Ronald A. Wilson, CAT IV, 1967

The Cave by Ray Sarlin, 1970

Roger Blum, Vietnam Combat Artist Team I, discusses his painting Attack at Twilight,

Attack at Twilight, Roger Blum, Vietnam, 1966

“Last Stand” – Phillip W. Jones, 1967-68 vcap

“Unreal Realities” – Ronald A. Wilson, 1967 vcap

“Looking Down the Trail” – James Pollack, 1967 vcap

“Killed In Action” – Burdell Moody, 1967 vcap

“Wounded” – Robert C. Knight, 1966 vcap

“Swamp Patrol” – Roger Blum, 1966 Vietnam combat art project

Easter Sunrise Base Camp English, Vietnam By Michael R. Crook, 1967

Street Scene Vietnam By Kenneth J. Scowcroft, 1967

Viet Cong Suspects Vietnam By Ronald A. Wilson, 1968

Much of their work is on display across the nation in various military museums, installations and federal buildings while Pollocks’s essay is part of the Library of Congress and he continues to be outspoken about his time in South East Asia as well as the program as a whole.

Much of the paintings are available online at the CMH’s website.

Thank you for your work, gentlemen.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Vernon Howe Bailey

Posted on February 7, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Vernon Howe Bailey

Born in Camden, New Jersey in the peaceful time that was 1874 in the United States, young Vernon Howe Bailey was a skilled artist already in his youth, earning a place at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Art in Philadelphia at the tender young age of 15. This led to further study in London and Paris and by 1892, at age 18, he was a regular illustrator on the staff of the Philadelphia Times back in the day when virtually every image was drawn rather than photographed.

Fitchburg elevator fire of 1898

While at the Times, he submitted works to weekly and monthly periodicals such as Scribner’s, Harper’s, Leslies Weekly and Colliers— all big names at the time. In 1902, he left Philly and took a job at the Boston Herald.

Before the Great War, he toured Europe extensively and created enduring architectural studies that preserved the lamplight era just before the lamps themselves were blown out.

Brasenose College, Oxford by Vernon Howe

Red Lion Passage

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Antwerp

When WWI came, he did war work for the Navy and some of these images grew acclaim for their attention to detail. in fact, he was the first artist authorized by the U. S. Government to make drawings of America’s war effort in the Great War.

NH 86449 USS Kaiser Wilhelm II

NH 86451 USS NEW YORK (BB-34) and USS ARIZONA (BB-39) fitting out note torpedo boat loading fish

NH 86454 USS NEW MEXICO (BB-40) Building

USS Barracuda in dry dock

Postwar, it was more architecture and travel, though the number of pieces he did per month began to dwindle as his rates had gone up in accordance with his renown. He was even commissioned to produce watercolors for the Vatican.

When the Second World War came, it was back to work with the Navy. Throughout the war he toured extensively stateside and created some of the best military art of the era from any pen or brush.

An entire set of 22 watercolors sprang from a three-week long stay in March 1942 at NAS Jacksonville where he recorded the seaplane operations there with a more painterly approach than he did in 1918.

Landing planes at NAS Jacksonville.

PBY Patrol planes at the beach.

Patrol plane on the air station apron.

Crane hoisting a sea plane from the St. Johns River.

Apron with patrol squadron planes.

Hauling a Kingfisher sea plane up the ramp.

Patrol Plane 33.

Seagoing Rescue Tugs,” by Vernon Howe Bailey, Watercolor, 1942, 88-165-LN. This painting went south http://www.navalhistory.org/2010/04/12/misappropriated-navy-art but, as noted by the NHC, was recovered: "This painting recently returned to us from a DC area auction house. The consignor had found it at a Goodwill store, I’m told. Its last location before it went missing was with the Bureau of Ships before 1969. One of our local NCIS agents very kindly visited the auction house two hours before the start of our first big snowstorm in February to let them know the Navy had a claim on the painting."

Seagoing Rescue Tugs,” by Vernon Howe Bailey, Watercolor, 1942, 88-165-LN. This painting went south but, as noted by the NHC, was recovered: “This painting recently returned to us from a DC area auction house. The consignor had found it at a Goodwill store, I’m told. Its last location before it went missing was with the Bureau of Ships before 1969. One of our local NCIS agents very kindly visited the auction house two hours before the start of our first big snowstorm in February to let them know the Navy had a claim on the painting.”

Combat Art entitled View of a PB2Y in a Camouflaged Revetment by Vernon Howe Bailer (No. 397). Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection. National Archives photograph, KN 24436.

Combat Art entitled, PB2Y-2 Taking off from the Water by Vernon Howe Bailer (No.396). Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection. National Archives photograph, KN-24437.

Postwar, he returned to New York and continued where he left off, never fully retiring.

In addition to numerous medals, ribbons and awards, Bailey was a full and celebrated member of the Society of Illustrators and of the Architectural League of New York.

He passed in 1953 in New York City, at the ripe old age of 79.

Besides works maintained by the NAS Jacksonville and the Naval Historical Command, he is also exhibited in the Smithsonian’s extensive collection who maintain some 600 of his illustrations and papers, North Carolina State University the French War Museum in Paris and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. A number of his architectural drawings from the Victorian era can be found online at The Victorian Web.

Thank you for your work, sir.

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laststandonzombieisland

Weapons, Wars, Preparation and Security from a recovering gun nut turned bad writer

Tag Archives: military artist

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