The Exhausted Soldier
The real reason they are called army "fatigues" - " Je suis fatigué! "
This watercolor depicts a soldier sleeping in the midst of the dust and rubble of St. Lo. Without the information
conveyed in the title, the viewer might believe this soldier to be dead, dead tired! He shows no sign of
movement and his body is twisted with exhaustion as he sleeps... As if to strengthen this impression, the artist
has highlighted the destruction and loneliness of the empty town surrounding him.
Title: Exhausted Soldier - (soldier in army fatigues) Watercolor on paper, 11" x 15", St. Lo, France, 1944
Military artist Olin Dows was born in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York in 1904. He studied for two years at Harvard before taking a trip abroad to enroll in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Not yet having a clear focus for his artistic pursuits, his study in Paris was only moderately succesful. Upon returning to the U.S., Dows enrolled in Yale Art School, followed by a year at the Art Student League in New York, during which time he traveled to Mexico to paint and made the acquaintance of Diego Rivera, who was working on an immense government-sponsored mural in the Palacio National.
Dows was involved in the establishment of the Treasury Department's Art Program in 1933 and appointed chief of the Treasury Relief Art Program in 1935. After leaving the program in the late 1930s, Dows won the commission to paint murals in the new post offices of Rhinebeck and Hyde Post, New York, his home region.
By the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks, Dows was back in Washington working in the Office of Civilian Defense. At this time, he suggested the creation of an artist program to document the war, though it was another year before the War Department bought into the idea and began to establish the artist program. link
Tinker tailor soldier sailor rich man poor man beggar man, THIEF!
.
This watercolor depicts a soldier sleeping in the midst of the dust and rubble of St. Lo. Without the information
conveyed in the title, the viewer might believe this soldier to be dead, dead tired! He shows no sign of
movement and his body is twisted with exhaustion as he sleeps... As if to strengthen this impression, the artist
has highlighted the destruction and loneliness of the empty town surrounding him.
Title: Exhausted Soldier - (soldier in army fatigues) Watercolor on paper, 11" x 15", St. Lo, France, 1944
Military artist Olin Dows was born in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York in 1904. He studied for two years at Harvard before taking a trip abroad to enroll in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Not yet having a clear focus for his artistic pursuits, his study in Paris was only moderately succesful. Upon returning to the U.S., Dows enrolled in Yale Art School, followed by a year at the Art Student League in New York, during which time he traveled to Mexico to paint and made the acquaintance of Diego Rivera, who was working on an immense government-sponsored mural in the Palacio National.
Dows was involved in the establishment of the Treasury Department's Art Program in 1933 and appointed chief of the Treasury Relief Art Program in 1935. After leaving the program in the late 1930s, Dows won the commission to paint murals in the new post offices of Rhinebeck and Hyde Post, New York, his home region.
By the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks, Dows was back in Washington working in the Office of Civilian Defense. At this time, he suggested the creation of an artist program to document the war, though it was another year before the War Department bought into the idea and began to establish the artist program. link
Tinker tailor soldier sailor rich man poor man beggar man, THIEF!
.