''American official war artists'' have been part of the American military since 1917. Artists are unlike the objective camera lens which records only a single instant and no more. The war artist captures instantaneous action and conflates earlier moments of the same scene within one compelling image.

Naval History & Heritage Command The Naval History and Heritage Command, formerly the Naval Historical Center, is an Echelon II command responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage located at the historic Washington Navy Yard. ...

(NHHC)
Navy Combat Art Program

History

In World War I, eight artists commissioned as captains in the U.S. Corps of Engineers. These men were sent to Europe to record the activities of the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

United States Army Center of Military History The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Arm ...

(CMH)
Army Art Program History
In 1941, the Navy Combat Art Program was founded in order to ensure that competent artists would be present at the scene of history-making events. Eight active duty artists developed a record of all phases of World War II; and all major naval operations have been depicted by Navy artists. During the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, the program was revived with two military artists in combat contexts. Since then, artists have been sent to other combat zones, including the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Army War Art Unit was established in late 1942; and by the spring of 1943, 42 artists were selected. In May 1943, Congress withdrew funding the unit was inactivated. The Army's Vietnam Combat Art Program was started in 1966. Teams of soldier-artists created pictorial accounts and interpretations for the annals of army military history. These teams of five soldier-artists typically spent 60 days of temporary duty (TDY) in Vietnam embedded with various units. The U. S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) currently includes an Army Art Collection with about 40 representative war artists. In 1992, the Army Staff Artist Program was attached to the

. Army artists are a permanent part of the Museum Division's Collections Branch. There are significant differences in the artwork created by the branches of the U.S. military:

Scope

USMCBattles Haiti rice distribution 2010

Military art Military art is art with a military subject matter, regardless of its style or medium. The battle scene is one of the oldest types of art in developed civilizations, as rulers have always been keen to celebrate their victories and intimidate po ...

and the work of American military artists includes both peacetime and wartime. For example, USMC combat artist

Kristopher Battles Kristopher J. Battles is an American artist, known as the last remaining United States Marine Corps, USMC combat artist in 2010.Kino, Carol "With Sketchpads and Guns, Semper Fi"Operation Unified Response Operation Unified Response was the United States military's response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It was conducted by Joint Task Force Haiti and commanded by United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) Military Deputy Commander Lieutenant Gene ...

after the disastrous earthquake in 2010.

Select artists

World War I

William James Aylward William James Aylward (September 5, 1875 – February 26, 1956) was a war artist for the United States Army during World War I. Biography Aylward was born September 5, 1875 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and developed an early interest in things naut ...

CMH
artists, p. 1.
/ref> * Walter Jack Duncan *

Harvey Thomas Dunn Harvey Thomas Dunn National Academician, NA (March 8, 1884 – October 29, 1952) was an American painter and teacher. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, ''The Prairie is My Garden'' (1950). In this painting, a mother an ...

Kerr Eby Kerr Eby (19 October 1889 – 18 November 1946) was a Canadian illustrator best known for his renderings of soldiers in combat in the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars. He is held in a similar regard to Harvey Dunn and th ...

Marines *

George Matthews Harding George Matthews Harding (1882–1959) was an American painter, author-illustrator, and a muralist. He served as an official war artist during World War I and World War II. Life and career George Matthews Harding was born in Philadelphia. At ...

Wallace Morgan Wallace Morgan (1875 – April 24, 1948) was a war artist for the United States Army during World War I. Biography Morgan was born in 1875, and he grew up in Albany, New York, where his family had moved shortly after his birth. Upon graduation fr ...

* Ernest Clifford PeixottoCMH
artists, p. 2.
/ref> * J. Andre Smith. *

Don Troiani Don Troiani (born 1949) is an American painter whose work focuses on his native country's military heritage, mostly from the American Revolution, War of 1812 and American Civil War. His highly realistic and historically accurate oil and watercolo ...

(born 1949) * Harry Everett Townsend, Army. *

Claggett Wilson Claggett Wilson (1887–1952) was one of America's first "modernist" painters. Early in his career he taught painting and drawing at Columbia University. After serving as a lieutenant in World War I, Wilson returned from France to document his ...

Army

World War II

* Paul Harding Myers, 1920-2007 *

McClelland Barclay McClelland Barclay (1891 – 18 July 1943) was an American illustrator. By the age of 21, Barclay's work had been published in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'', and ''Cosmopolitan''. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in ...

, 1891–1942 *

George Biddle George Biddle (January 24, 1885 – November 6, 1973) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer, best known for his social realism and combat art. A childhood friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he played a major role in establi ...

, 1885–1973 *

Franklin Boggs Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral div ...

, 1914-2009 *

Aaron Bohrod Aaron Bohrod (21 November 1907 – 3 April 1992) was an American artist best known for his trompe-l'œil still-life paintings. Education Bohrod was born in Chicago in 1907, the son of an emigree Bessarabian-Jewish grocer. Bohrod studied at ...

, 1907–1992

Brown University Library The John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, nicknamed "the Rock", is the primary teaching and research library for the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It is one of five individual libraries whic ...

American war artists
*

Howard Brodie Howard Brodie (November 18, 1915 – September 19, 2010) was a sketch artist best known for his World War II, Korean and Vietnam combat and courtroom sketches. He worked as a staff artist for ''Life, Yank Magazine, Collier's, Associated Press'' ...

, 1915–2010 *

Manuel Bromberg Manuel Abraham Bromberg (March 6, 1917 – February 3, 2022) was an American artist and Professor Emeritus of Art, at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He was a 1946 Guggenheim Fellow. Life Bromberg was born in Centerville, Iowa, ...

, 1917– *

Jack Coggins Jack Banham Coggins (July 10, 1911 – January 30, 2006) was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space tra ...

, 1914–2006 *

John Steuart Curry John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 – August 29, 1946) was an American painter whose career spanned the years from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting rural life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart B ...

, 1897–1946, for information about his war art, see his artwork page *

Olin Dows Stephen Olin Dows (August 14, 1904 – June 6, 1981) was a United States Army artist who served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Early life Dows was born in 1904, at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. He was the only so ...

, 1904–1981 *

Edward Dugmore Edward Dugmore (February 20, 1915 – June 13, 1996) was an abstract expressionist painter with close ties to both the San Francisco and New York art worlds in the post-war era following World War II. Since 1950 he had more than two dozen solo e ...

, 1915–1996 * William Franklin Draper, 1912–2003 * Nathan Glick, 1912–2002 * Albert A Gold, 1916-2006 * Mitchell Jamieson, 1915–1976 * Joe Jones, 1909–1963 *

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Biography Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889 in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi original ...

, 1893–1953 *

Warren Leopold Warren Leopold (February 15, 1920 – May 19, 1998) was an American architect, painter and craftsman who designed and built coastal homes in Cambria, California and throughout San Luis Obispo County, California and whose work is part of the Organi ...

, 1920–1998 *

Roger Lewis Roger Lewis (born 26 February 1960) is a Welsh academic, biographer and journalist. Biography Lewis was raised in Bedwas, Monmouthshire, and educated at Bassaleg School in Newport. He then attended the University of St Andrews, graduating MA, ...

, 1918-2006 *Henry Jay MacMillan (1908 1991) MacMiillan joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and soon became associated with the Army's art program at Fort Belvoir, Va. Attached to the 62nd Engineer Topographical Co. and later the headquarters of the Army's XIX Corps, he served as a combat artist in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy (where he executed a major study of German hedgerow defenses), Belgium, Holland and Germany. During the war, he executed a major body of watercolors and sketches documenting wartime destruction, battlefield landscapes and everyday military life. These were given major exhibitions in 1973 at the Wilmington-New Hanover County Museum and in 1994 (under the title “Behind the Lines”) at the Cape Fear Museum. *

Ludwig Mactarian Ludwig Mactarian (1908–1955; sometimes spelled 'MacTarian' or 'Mkitarian') was an American painter, muralist, and illustrator. Early life Ludwig Mactarian was born on January 1, 1908;website www.locategrave.org/l/4527016/Ludwig-Mactarian-NY ...

, 1908–1955 * John McDermott, 1919–1977 *

Barse Miller Barse Miller (January 24, 1904 – January 21, 1973) was an American watercolorist, muralist, illustrator, and art educator. He was a professor of Art at Queens College for 26 years. His work is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angele ...

, 1904-1973 *

John Cullen Murphy John Cullen Murphy (May 3, 1919 – July 2, 2004) was an American illustrator best known for his three decades of work on the ''Prince Valiant'' comic strip. Early life and education Born in New York City, Murphy spent his childhood in Chicago a ...

, 1919–2004 * Albert K. Murray, 1906–1992 *

Henry Varnum Poor Henry Varnum Poor (December 8, 1812 – January 4, 1905) was an American financial analyst and founder of H.V. and H.W. Poor Co, which later evolved into the financial research and analysis bellwether, Standard & Poor's. Biography Born in East A ...

, 1887–1970 * Dwight Shepler, 1905–1974 *

Mitchell Siporin Mitchell Siporin (1910–1976) was a Social Realist American painter. Biography Mitchell Siporin was born on May 5, 1910 in New York City to Hyman, a truck driver, and Jennie Siporin, both immigrants from Poland, and grew up in Chicago.Abram Le ...

, 1910–1976 *

Sidney Simon Sidney A. Simon (May 21, 1917 – August 4, 1997) was an American painter, sculptor, muralist, art school co-founder, and American official war artist. Early life Sidney Simon was born May 21, 1917, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father wa ...

, 1917-1997 aka. Sid Simon, * Standish Backus, 1910–1989 * Frede Vidar, 1911-1967 *

Rudolph von Ripper Rudolph Charles von Ripper (January 29, 1905 – July 9, 1960) (born Rudolph Carl von Ripper, sometimes Rudolph RipperAfter the abolition of the Austrian nobility in 1919, Austrian nobles were no longer entitled to use 'von' in their names. How ...

, 1905-1960 *

Taro Yashima was a Japanese-American artist and children's book author. He immigrated to the United States in 1939 and assisted the U.S. war effort. Early life Iwamatsu was born September 21, 1908, in Nejime, Kimotsuki District, Kagoshima, and raised there o ...

, 1908–1994

Vietnam Era

Soldier Artist Participants in the U. S. Army
Vietnam Combat Artists Program In June 1966, the Army Vietnam Combat Artists Program was established as part of the United States Army Art Program, utilizing teams of soldier-artists to make pictorial records of U.S. Army activities in the course of the Vietnam War for the a ...

* CAT I, 15 Aug - 15 Dec 1966, Roger A. Blum ( Stillwell, KS), Robert C. Knight (

Newark, NJ Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.East Hartford, CT East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford, Connecticut. It is home to aerosp ...

), Paul Rickert (

Philadelphia, PA Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

), Felix R. Sanchez (

Fort Madison, IA Fort Madison is a city and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States along with Keokuk. Of Iowa's 99 counties, Lee County is the only one with two county seats. The population was 10,270 at the time of the 2020 census. Located along the ...

), John O. Wehrle (

Dallas, TX Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wit ...

), and supervisor, Frank M. Sherman. * CAT II, 15 Oct 1966 - 15 Feb 1967, Augustine G. Acuna (

Monterey, CA Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under b ...

), Alexander A. Bogdanovich (

Chicago, IL (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

), Theodore E. Drendel (

Naperville, IL Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was established by the banks of the DuPage river, ...

), David M. Lavender (

Houston, TX Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

), Gary W. Porter (

El Cajon, CA El Cajon ( , ; Spanish: El Cajón, meaning "the box") is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was in turn named for the box-like shape of the ...

), and supervisor, Carolyn M. O'Brien. * CAT III, 16 Feb - 17 June 1967, Michael R. Crook ( Sierra Madre, CA), Dennis O. McGee ( Castro Valley, CA), Robert T. Myers (

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...

, NM), Kenneth J. Scowcroft (

Manassas, VA Manassas (), formerly Manassas Junction, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 42,772 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Prince William County, although the two are separate jurisdi ...

), Stephen H. Sheldon (

Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

), and supervisor, C. Bruce Smyser. * CAT IV, 15 Aug - 31 Dec 1967, Samuel E. Alexander (

Philadelphia, MS Philadelphia is a city in and the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,118 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Philadelphia is municipal corporation, inc ...

), Daniel T. Lopez (

Fresno, CA Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

), Burdell Moody (

Mesa, AZ Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the most populous city in the East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by Tempe on the west, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community ...

), James R. Pollock ( Pollock, SD), Ronald A. Wilson (

Alhambra, CA Alhambra (, , ; from "Alhambra") is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately eight miles from the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. It was incorporated on July 11 ...

), and technical supervisor, Frank M. Thomas. * CAT V, 1 Nov 1967 - 15 March 1968, Warren W. Buchanan (

Kansas City, MO Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

), Philip V. Garner (

Dearborn, MI Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

), Phillip W. Jones (

Greensboro, NC Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

), Don R. Schol (

Denton, TX Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the 27th-most populous city in Texas, the 197th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous ...

), John R. Strong (Kanehoe, HI), and technical supervisor, Frank M. Thomas. * CAT VI, 1 Feb - 15 June 1968, Robert T. Coleman (

Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

), David N. Fairrington (

Oakland, CA Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

), John D. Kurtz IV (

Wilmington, DE Wilmington (Unami language, Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North ...

), Kenneth T. McDaniel ( Paris, TN), Michael P. Pala (

Bridgeport, CT Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock ...

). * CAT VII, 15 Aug - 31 Dec 1968, Brian H. Clark (

Huntington, NY The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. ...

), William E. Flaherty Jr. (

Louisville, KY Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

), William C. Harrington (

Terre Haute, IN Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

), Barry W. Johnston (

Huntsville, AL Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...

), Stephen H. Randall (

Des Moines, IA Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

), and supervisor, Fitzallen N. Yow. * CAT VIII, 1 Feb - 15 June 1969, Edward J. Bowen (Carona Del Mar, CA), James R. Drake (

Colorado Springs, CO Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

), Roman Rakowsky (

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, OH), Victory V. Reynolds ( Idaho Falls, ID), Thomas B. Schubert (

Chicago, IL (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

), and supervisor, Fred B. Engel. * CAT IX, 1 Sept 1969 - 14 Jan 1970, David E. Graves (

Lawrence, KS Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2020 census, ...

), James S. Hardy (

Coronado, CA Coronado (Spanish for "Crowned") is a resort city located in San Diego County, California, United States, across the San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It was founded in the 1880s and incorporated in 1890. Its population was 24,697 at th ...

), William R. Hoettels (

San Antonio, TX ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

), Bruce N. Rigby (

Dekalb, IL DeKalb ( ) is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 according to the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated Franconian- French war hero Johann de Kalb, who died ...

), Craig L. Stewart ( Laurel, MD), and supervisor, Edward C. Williams.

Recent conflicts

Notes

References

* McCloskey, Barbara. (2005). ''Artists of World War II.'' Westport: Greenwood Press.
OCLC 475496457
* An article from the Wilmington Star News in 2009 by Ben Steelman: