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
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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.”


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Comments (3)

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.

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

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