Art from the trenches : America's uniformed artists in World War I / Alfred Emile Cornebise.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 136-152) and index.

Since ancient times, wars have inspired artists and their patrons to commemorate victories. When the United States finally entered World War I, American artists and illustrators were commissioned to paint and draw it. These artists' commissions, however, were as captains for their patron: the U.S. Army. The eight men--William J. Aylward, Walter J. Duncan, Harvey T. Dunn, George M. Harding, Wallace Morgan, Ernest C. Peixotto, J. Andre Smith, and Harry E. Townsend--arrived in France early in 1918 with the American Expeditionary forces (AEF). Alfred Emile Cornebise presents here the first comprehensive account of the U.S. Army art program in World War I. The AEF artists saw their role as one of preserving images of the entire aspect of American involvement in a way that photography could not. Unsure of what to do with these official artists, AEF leadership in France issues passes that allowed them relative freedom to move about, sketching as they went and finding supplies and lodgings where they could. But the bureaucratic confusion over the artists' mission soon created controversy in Washington. The army brass there was dismayed at the slow trickle of art coming in and at some of the bucolic, behind-the-lines scenes, which held little promise as dramatic magazine illustrations or propaganda. The Armistice came only a matter of months after the American Artists arrived in France, and they marched into the Rhineland with the American occupation forces, sketching along the way. Soon returning to France the artists went into separate studios to finish their works, but the army hurriedly discharged them and they were civilian artists once more. The author conducted research for this book in the World War I army records in the National Archives, as well as the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, and others throughout the country. The sixty-six black-and-white pictures reproduced here are some of the approximately five hundred pieces of official AEF combat art, which shortly after the war were turned over to the Smithsonian Institution, where most of them remain.

Print version record.

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Part I: Art and the Great War; 1. Introduction; 2. The Army's Official Artists; 3. The Daily Travail; 4. After the Armistice; 5. The Fruits of Their Labor; Part II: The Artists' Images; A. William fames Aylward; Water Front, Old Harbor, Marseilles; Schooners in the Old Harbor, Marseilles; Repairing a Damaged Ship; First Division Headquarters Kitchen; Troops Waiting to Advance at Hattonchâtel; His Bunkie; Refugees Returning to Their Homes; B. Walter Jack Duncan; Blacksmith and Wagon Repair Shed.

Awaiting a Call: French Auto Truck and AmbulancesBarber Shop and First-Aid Station; Baldwin Locomotives Unloaded as Shipped; Cold Nights Coming On; A Battery of French 75's Shelling the Germans; C. Harvey Thomas Dunn; Off Duty; In the Front Line at Early Morning; The Engineer; The Machine Gunner; No Mans Land; The Harvest Moon; The Flare; The Hand Grenade; Tanks at Seichprey [sic]; Prisoners and Wounded; Kamerad-The Sniper; The Boche Looter; D. George Matthews Harding; Tanks Attacking Early Sept 26th; Vanquished by the Boche Plane; Verdun Offensive: Wounded Working Back to Aid Station.

First Aid Station with American WoundedAmerican Gun Fire Early Morning Opening Verdun Offensive; Verdun Offensive: American Troops Following Barrage; In Pursuit of the Enemy; To the Victor Belong the Spoils; Morning Mess, Beaumont-Toul Sector; E. Wallace Morgan; A Cold Breakfast on the March; American Artillery Relieved at Deumx; Dugouts of the 5th Marines in Bois de Belleau; Supply Trains on the Paris-Metz Road; The Morning Washup7 Neufmaison; Machine Gun Outfit Moving Forward near Esnes; Engineers Building Roads; F. Ernest Clifford Peixotto; Flirey; Hoops Leaving Esnes.

No Man's Land, near ThiaucourtGeneral Pershing Entering St Mihiel; German Shelters near Varennes; Main Square, Montabaur, Headquarters of the 1st Division; Boppard on the Rhine in the American Sector; First Americans Crossing the Rhine; G.J. André Smith; Chaumont American Headquarters; A View of Neufchâteau; A Gateway to the Front, Rambucourt; Flirey; Pathway to Peace; On the Edge of Rambucourt; Flying Field at Issoudun; H. Hairy Everett Townsend; A Tank Surprises and Cleans Up; A Six-Ton Camouflaged Tank; The Light Tank in Action; The Alert Nieuports; A Forced Landing near Neufchâteau.

On the Gas AlertSoldiers of the Telephone; Helping a Wounded Ally; Infantryman; Our Troops Entering Coblenz; Notes; Index; BackCover.

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