This year marks the thirty-first anniversary of the beginning of a unique collection of American War Art. The late Griffith Bailey Coale, a muralist and an expert on small boats and ship models, is credited with organizing the Combat Artists Corps in the U. S. Navy in 1941.
The original works were painted in all naval combat theaters in World War II. Since then, combat artists have recorded the Navy at war in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, as well as at peace. The result is a huge collection now valued in excess of two and one-half million dollars.
Lieutenant Commander Coale, along with other artists, proved that amid the shot, shell, and assault of war, skilled artists can bring to canvas a lasting and truthful visualization of men fighting a war upon the sea.
Coale’s first assignment in 1941 took him aboard a warship en route to Iceland. His experiences in the North Atlantic before the official entry of the United States into the war are vividly portrayed in his works on convoys and antisubmarine patrol.
By the middle of the war, there were Navy artists in all parts of the world, rendering the moods, struggles, glories, and sadness of the battlefront with brushes, oils, watercolors, charcoal, and chalk. Their paintings are of far greater significance than mere pictorial reporting; many are major works of art.
Since I960, much new naval art has been painted under the auspices of the Salmagundi Club of New York City, an organization of professional artists and patrons who formed the Navy Art Cooperation and Liaison Committee (NACAL), and the Municipal Art Department, City of Los Angeles. Some artists contribute while on regular active duty, others on special assignments. In addition, qualified members of the active Navy and Naval Reserve participate in the program. The Navy Art Center, above, is located in Building 67, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., where the public is invited to view a continually changing selection of paintings in the spacious and attractive gallery.
Presented on the following pages is a selection representative of this fine collection.
Note: A catalog entitled "Your Navy from the Viewpoint of the Nation’s Finest Artists” NAVSO P-3079 (revised 1/72), contains black and white photos of many of the paintings in the collection. Full color lithographs of the selected paintings may be requisitioned for official use and are available for sale to the general public for $1.00 each. Copies of the catalog and lithographs may be obtained from the Navy Publications and Printing Service Office, Building 4, Section D, 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 19111.