--- title: World War II Through a Painter's Eyes: The Art of Tom Lea description: A new exhibit at the National WWII Museum highlights the work of Tom Lea, who drew and painted the conflict for LIFE Magazine canonical: https://time.com/4382370/a-painters-view-of-world-war-ii/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-15T12:00:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:27.916Z og:title: World War II Through a Painter's Eyes: The Art of Tom Lea og:description: A new exhibit at the National WWII Museum highlights the work of Tom Lea og:url: https://time.com/4382370/a-painters-view-of-world-war-ii/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69a4b3f43e7fd512/6988995e8e060143004666e5/160624-tom-lea-wwii-paintings-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Tom Lea WWII Painting og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World War II Through a Painter's Eyes: The Art of Tom Lea twitter:description: A new exhibit at the National WWII Museum highlights the work of Tom Lea twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt69a4b3f43e7fd512/6988995e8e060143004666e5/160624-tom-lea-wwii-paintings-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Painter's View of World War II > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=7d6d8721-d6ec-4b62-9c02-475055e355b6&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Jul 15, 2016 12:00 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Requiescat in pace: "The dead Marine seemed so quiet and empty and past all the small things a man could love or hate," Lea wrote about this moving scene. Caption from LIFE. Requiescat in pace: "The dead Marine seemed so quiet and empty and past all the small things a man could love or hate," Lea wrote about this moving scene. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Jul 15, 2016 12:00 PM UTC More than 150 years after photography brought, for the first time, the horrors of the Civil War to Americans far from the battlefields, the role of the conflict photographer is now a well-established one. The history of conflict photography has its [celebrities](http://time.com/3735936/david-douglas-duncan/), its [iconic moments](http://time.com/120751/robert-capa-dday-photos/), even its fictional [interpretations](http://time.com/4217779/dickey-chapelle-photos/). And, during its years one of the nation’s premiere photo magazines, LIFE played a crucial role in that history, supporting many of the figures who made the genre what it is today. Less well known, however, is the modern history of conflict painting. A [new exhibit](http://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/exhibits/special-exhibit-tom-lea.html), on view now at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, showcases just one example of how non-photographic records of war can be just as crucial a document of conflict, with 26 original works by Tom Lea, a Texan writer and artist who covered the war for LIFE. Several of the pieces from the show can be seen in the gallery above. As LIFE [described](https://books.google.com/books?id=hEwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA60&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwitk9TL7-7NAhWHK8AKHc0eBQw4KBDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false) to readers in 1941, Lea was one of several artists whom the magazine commissioned to create “America’s first gallery of defense art.” For that assignment, he painted Sergeant Bruce Bieber of the Ninth Infantry at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. The assignment was a success, and soon LIFE had turned Lea into a special kind of war correspondent, traveling to the [North Atlantic](https://books.google.com/books?id=J1AEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA53&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2qcSK8O7NAhWMDsAKHUeVA2E4HhDoAQgzMAY#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false) and the [South Pacific](https://books.google.com/books?id=RU4EAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2qcSK8O7NAhWMDsAKHUeVA2E4HhDoAQgjMAI#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false). He made sketches of what he saw, which he could use as the basis for the paintings that LIFE [praised](https://books.google.com/books?id=J1AEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA53&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2qcSK8O7NAhWMDsAKHUeVA2E4HhDoAQgzMAY#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false) for their “sympathy and accuracy” and their subjects [said](https://books.google.com/books?id=PFAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2qcSK8O7NAhWMDsAKHUeVA2E4HhDoAQgvMAU#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false) did “the Navy, the war effort and the public a great service.” In [one instance](https://books.google.com/books?id=KVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2qcSK8O7NAhWMDsAKHUeVA2E4HhDoAQgnMAM#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false), after the ship on which he had been embedded was sunk, along with the photographic files on board, Lea’s drawings became the only record of the engagement. In September of 1944, when the U.S. 1st Marine Division invaded the island of Peleliu, Lea was [there for the bloody battle](https://books.google.com/books?id=%5FEkEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22tom+lea%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-mqfo-e7NAhVIWh4KHRRNA%5FM4ChDoAQgvMAU#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false). He produced one of his most recognizable works, _That 2,000 Yard Stare,_ seen in the first slide above. “Two thirds of his company has been killed or wounded but he is still standing,” Lea wrote in his notes on the image. “So he will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?” Tom Lea: LIFE and World War II _is on view at the National World War II Museum through the end of the year._  Tom Lea illustrations from the June 11, 1945 issue of LIFE magazine. Tom Lea—LIFE Magazine  Caption from LIFE. Battle fatigue is mirrored in the stark, staring eyes of this Marine painted against the background of "Bloody Nose Ridge," a mile-long jagged cliff which was the strongest Jap redoubt on Peleliu. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  Caption from LIFE. Requiescat in pace: "The dead Marine seemed so quiet and empty and past all the small things a man could love or hate," Lea wrote about this moving scene. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  "Tom Over The Side," ink wash on paper. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  Caption from LIFE. On the hot coral sands of the beach a Jap shellburst kills four of the attacking Marines, flattens others. At right: a hit U.S. landing craft burns. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  Caption from LIFE. Advance on blockhouse: Marines move cautiously past "dead Japs" which littered the ground—strange, twisted bodies, still red, raw meat and blood mixed with gravelly dust and splinters." - Tom Lea Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  Caption from LIFE. Commander of a 7th Regiment battalion, 28-year-old Lieut. Colonel Hunter Hurst, sits on a smashed wet log, marking positions on his field map. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  "The Fight Hornet," oil on canvas. Tom Lea, Courtesy of The National WWII Museum  Caption from LIFE. Gripping the steel side of a landing barge, a war-painted Marine veteran stares through the smoke of exploding shells toward beachhead of Peleliu. 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