Advertisement



The Art of War

The paintings of Tom Lea, Life magazine's artist-correspondent during World War II.

By Rebecca Maksel
airspacemag.com, February 06, 2009


Tom Lea
 

From Italy, Lea headed to Egypt. On October 19, 1943, he made this sketch of a dust storm in Iraq: “Just after 0600 we hailed a taxi in front of Shepherd’s and made a wild rush for the Kilo 8 airdrome, to catch my plane for India…. I got on the plane, a C-47 fitted out as a troop carrier and bound for operations on the Burma border…. I woke up about 1300, in very bumpy air, and looked out the window and found we were riding the top of a thick tan sandstorm. An hour later the sand cloud beneath us thinned out, and I could see the country. It was dried to a pale dusty umber, utterly dead and sad and wide.”

Article Tools

 
  • Font
    		•  Share/Save/Bookmark Share
     
  • Email
    		•
     
  • Print
    		•  Digg Digg
     
  • Comments
    		•  StumbleUpon StumbleUpon
     
  • RSS
    		•  Reddit Reddit
     



     
    Comments

    What an excellent well written account of the life and works of Tom Lea who is an underappreciated artist and writer of the World War II era.

    Posted by Margaret Kurtin on February 15,2009 | 10:53AM

    The pictures and the captions tell us a lot about the man himself. A worthy representative I think, of a very worthy generation.

    Posted by Mike Houlding on August 26,2009 | 08:05PM

    Post a Comment


    Name: (required)

    Email: (required)

    Comment: