Seeing that historic events were unfolding in the rising tension of the "undeclared war" of the North Atlantic, New York muralist Griffith Baily Coale convinced Admiral C.W. Nimitz to send Navy artists into action to record military activities in ways that cameras and the written word could not. The Navy Combat Artist Program was approved and in August 1941 Coale became the Navy's first combat artist on active duty.
Eventually the Navy sent eight artists to serve in combat areas and record their impressions of the action. This small number produced over 1,300 drawings, watercolors, and paintings, which were used to illustrate books and magazines, and toured the country in exhibitions designed to inform and raise public morale. They documented a variety of actions in the European and Pacific theaters, including the Normandy invasion, campaigns in North Africa, and the invasion of Okinawa. Their art captures the experiences of war and the men and women who fought in it.
The captions you see here are the artists' own words, oftentimes written on the reverse of the paintings, giving their unique insight into the events as they saw them.
STANDISH BACKUS
Standish Backus, JR. (1910 -1989) Commander, USNR
Born in Detroit, Backus graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Art and Architecture. He later studied painting and art in Europe and developed the style of the California watercolorists, who were receiving national acclaim in the 1930s. When he reported for active duty with the Navy early in 1941, Backus became a specialist in Net and Boom Defenses; in May 1945 he was assigned to cover naval operations in the Pacific as an artist. Arriving in Japan with the Fourth Marine Regiment, he participated in the entry into Tokyo Bay and witnessed the surrender ceremonies aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. In 1955-56 he returned to duty at his own request to go with Admiral Byrd to the Antarctic.
Backus explained why the Navy sent artists to cover Naval activities: "The Navy appreciates that the artist, in reporting his experiences, has the opportunity to convey to his audience a large sense of realization of a subject, than has the photographer with his instantaneous exposures, or the writer, who lacks the advantage of direct visual impact. This artist is limited only by the degree of his skill in portraying his sensitivities. Concurrently, it is to be understood that the artist is obliged to contemplate the subject reflectively, seeking to penetrate beyond the surface of factual representation, in order to present the true nature of the experience".
In civil life he engaged in illustrating, painting, and teaching at his home in Santa Barbara, California, until his death in 1989.
GRIFFITH BAILY COALE
Griffith Baily Coale (1890-1950) Commander, USNR
A native in Baltimore, Maryland, Coale spent three years studying art in Munich, Paris, Italy and Spain. Subsequent to his return to the United States, he resided in New York City and became nationally known through his many famous murals and paintings. Sensing the imminent onset of world conflict, Coale convinced Admiral C.W. Nimitz to establish the Navy Combat Art Program and in August 1941, he was commissioned in the U.S. Naval Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
He immediately left for an assignment in the North Atlantic, where he witnessed the sinking of the USS Reuben James. Several months later, after the attack of Pearl Harbor, Coale traveled there to gather material for a mural commemorating the tragedy. In his six and a half years with the Navy, Coale witnessed action in every ocean, including the Battle of Midway and British operations in Southeast Asia. Life magazine reproduced the "North Atlantic Patrol" series which was later published in book form, and he also wrote another book based on his experiences, "Victory at Midway."
Coale retired from the Navy in 1945 with the rank of Commander. He returned to his home and studio at Stonington, Connecticut, and resumed private work until his unexpected death in 1950.
WILLIAM F DRAPER
William Franklin Draper (b. 1912) Lieutenant Commander, USNR
Born in Hopedale, Massachusetts, Draper attended the National Academy of Design and the Cope Art School in Massachusetts and also studied in France and Spain. Commissioned early in 1942, he created a series of paintings during his coverage of the Aleutians, Bougainville and the Marianas campaigns, many of which later appeared in color reproductions in the National Geographic Magazine. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his meritorious work as a combat artist in the Aleutians and under enemy attack in the South Pacific.
After returning to civilian life, William F. Draper earned an international reputation as a portraitist. His subjects have included John F. Kennedy (1962), the Shah of Iran (1967), James Michener (1979) and Richard M. Nixon (1981), as well as numerous other political, social, and corporate leaders. His work is included in the collections of a number of major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.
MITCHELL JAMIESON
Mitchell Jamieson (1915-1976) Lieutenant, USNR
One of the country's foremost watercolor artists, Jamieson was born in Kensington, Maryland, and attended the Abbott School of Fine and Commercial Arts and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Having already established himself with many noted commissions, he began his duty in 1942 as an official combat artist depicting the Navy and its many operations from the North African campaigns to the South Pacific. During the war the Navy awarded him the Bronze Star. His combat paintings were reproduced extensively in Life, Fortune and other national publications.
Jamieson said of his Navy combat art experience "I have confined my paintings to what I have experienced and know to be strictly true, at the same time having to adapt my way of working to the pressure of time and swift-moving events. Yet anything that is worthwhile or that has the bite of reality in the work produced under these circumstances probably derives from a constant effort to share as fully as possible in the lives and experiences of others". Twice awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award of Merit by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Jamieson died in 1976.
EDWARD MILLMAN
Edward Millman (1907-1964) Lieutenant, USNR
A native of Chicago, Millman attended the Art Institute of Chicago and later became chief illustrator for the Chicago Evening American. His interest in the frescoes of Diego Rivera led him to further his art education in Mexico. Commissioned by the Navy in 1943, Lieutenant Millman saw duty as a combat artist in the South Pacific Theater. He was awarded a post-service Guggenheim Fellowship for his paintings, which have been exhibited in leading American museums and art galleries.
Millman taught extensively in the United States at the University of Indiana, Cornell University, the Albright Art School of the University of Buffalo among others, and was artist-in-residence for one year at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the time of his death in 1964, Mr. Millman was Professor of Art at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a renowned abstract artist.
ALBERT K MURRAY
Albert K. Murray (1906-1992) Commander, USNR
Upon graduating cum laude from the College of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, Murray, a native of Emporia, Kansas, continued his studies both in the United States and Europe. Already a well-known portrait painter before he was commissioned a Lieutenant with the Combat Art Section, his first assignment was to execute a series of portraits of the Navy's General Board, which were the first of his many now famous military portraits. Attached to the Fourth Fleet, South Atlantic, and then the Eighth Fleet, North African waters, he often sketched in the heat of battle. The Navy awarded him the Bronze Star for bravery.
After the war, Mr. Murray painted official portraits of Navy war heroes for the service and served as the director of the Navy Combat Art Collection and its Operation Palette, a series of Navy art shows that traveled throughout the country.
As a civilian, Murray also painted prominent civilians, among them Thomas J. Watson of I.B.M., the philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller, and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, former publisher of the New York Times. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of American Art, and the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and Justice. He died in 1992.
ALEXANDER RUSSO
Alexander P. Russo (1922- ) Specialist First Class, USNR
Russo studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in 1942. First assigned as a graphic artist for the Navy recruiting bureau, he documented in art North African, Sicilian, and Normandy invasion operations. While completing that work he came into contact with the Navy Combat Art Program. He later transferred to that section and completed an assignment on board U.S.S. Tranquility in the Pacific. Russo received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his combat artwork.
After the war, he continued to study art and later taught at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C and Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. He exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, mainly in New York, Washington, D.C., and East Hampton, Long Island.
DWIGHT SHEPLER
Dwight C. Shepler (1905-1974) Commander, USNR
Born in Everett, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Williams College, Shepler became a member of the American Artists' Group and the American Artists Professional League. Commissioned in the Navy in May 1942 and assigned to the Combat Art Section, he first traveled with a destroyer on Pacific convoy duty. From the mud of Guadalcanal, through the years of the Allied build-up in England, to the memorable D-Day on the French coast, he painted and recorded the Navy's warfare. For his service as a Combat Artist, the Navy awarded Shepler the Bronze Star.
After the war, he continued his career as a pioneer watercolorist of the high ski country and served as president of the Guild of Boston Artists.