Everett Warner
Encyclopedia
Everett Longley Warner was an American Impressionist painter
and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage
during both World Wars.
, where his father was a lawyer
. His mother was descended from a line of prominent missionaries (the Riggs family), who worked extensively for years with the Dakota Sioux Indians, translating and preserving their traditional language. Warner spent part of his childhood in Iowa, then moved to Washington DC, when his father was appointed Examiner for the Bureau of Pensions.
While completing high school, he also went to classes at the Corcoran Museum and the Washington Art Students League. Following that, he was employed for several years as an art critic for the (Washington) Evening Star. In 1900, he moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League
with life drawing master George Bridgman
and illustrator Walter Clark
. His work was soon selected for inclusion in some of the country’s most prestigious art competitions, at the Art Institute of Chicago
, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
, the National Academy of Design
,
(he would visit there again four years later), where he studied in Paris
at the Académie Julian
, while also making sketching trips to Italy
, Germany
, Spain
, the Netherlands
, and other countries. Returning permanently to the US in 1909, he became affiliated with the Old Lyme Art Colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut
, which (under the sponsorship of art patron Florence Griswold
) had become a well-known center for American Impressionism. One of the leading participants in that colony was Childe Hassam
, who was a close associate of Abbott H. Thayer, a painter who was widely known for his theories of natural camouflage
.
In 1915, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Warner won a silver medal in the painting category, and a bronze medal in printmaking. Featured prominently at that World's Fair were the allegorical sculptures of Iowa-born artist Sherry Edmundson Fry
, who was awarded a silver medal, and who, a few years later, teamed up with New Hampshire painter Barry Faulkner
(Thayer’s cousin) to establish an artists’ camouflage corps. Ironically, at around this time, an inevitable decline began in the career prospects of all these young artists, many of whom were very gifted, largely because of the interest in Modern Art
, which had been loudly introduced to the American public in 1913 at the famous New York Armory Show
. As noted by Helen K. Fusscas in A World Observed: The Art of Everett Longley Warner, “By introducing European modernism to this country, the Armory Show [eventually] made American Impressionism seem decidedly old-fashioned and uninteresting.” In the years that followed, Warner and the others continued to work as artists, to exhibit, and to win awards, but they never achieved the stature that they might once have anticipated.
in 1917, Warner searched for ways by which he could contribute to the war effort. He considered a wide range of options, and even applied for the Camouflage Corps. For many years, one of his closest friends had been an MIT-trained scientist and Paris-trained artist named Charles Bittinger
(1879-1970), who would later play a prominent role in World War II ship camouflage. It may have been partly through Bittinger that Warner was approached by the US Shipping Board (in the summer of 1917) to carry out a camouflage scheme that had been invented by Thomas A. Edison. Using Edison’s specifications, it was Warner who applied that scheme to a former German ocean liner, the SS Ochenfels. Although the result was intended to be an “invisible ship,” it was not only readily visible but was structurally absurd as well, with the result that a section attached to the bow had fallen off before the ship left New York harbor. Recalling that fiasco, Warner said, “Thereafter I was for distortion patterns which make a ship hard to hit—not hard to see.”
A few months later, Warner presented his own ship camouflage plan to the US government. According to existing records, he argued that it is “impossible to make a ship invisible from a submarine, because she was almost invariably outlined against the sky and consequently would show up in silhouette. His proposal, therefore, was to break up the silhouette in such as way as to make it very difficult for the enemy to obtain the range.” This method, known officially as the Warner System, was one of six camouflage measures approved by the US, with others having been devised by George de Forest Brush
(in partnership with his son Gerome Brush, and with Abbott H. Thayer), William Mackay
, Lewis Herzog, Maximilian Toch
, and a person named Watson.
In February 1918, Warner accepted a commission as a Lieutenant in the US Naval Reserves, and was assigned to manage a design-based subdivision (in Washington, DC) of a newly formed American Camouflage Section. Among his fellow camouflage designers were Frederick Waugh (marine painter), Gordon Stevenson (portrait painter), John Gregory (British-born sculptor), Kenneth MacIntire, M. O’Connell (advertising artist), M. Nash, and a Navy ensign named Richardson. Concurrently, a research-based subdivision was set up at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York
, under the direction of Lieutenant Loyd A. Jones
, an optical physiologist. The officer in charge of both subdivisions was Lieutenant Harold Van Buskirk
.
None of this was without precedent, and to large extent these efforts were derived from the work of the British, who had set up a similar team in 1917. That unit was directed by British painter Norman Wilkinson
, who is now widely credited with having originated the practice of dazzle-painting or dazzle camouflage
. In March 1918, Wilkinson served for four weeks as a camouflage advisor to the US Navy. His escort during that visit to the US (during which he lectured at harbors at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Norfolk on the purpose, design and application of dazzle painting) was Everett Warner.
. He extended his experiment by making large paintings from the small ones he had made in flight. In planning the exhibition of these, it occurred to him that they should not hang on the wall, but be positioned on the floor, flat and face-up, while the audience would view them from the side, at an oblique angle (as in anamorphosis
), thereby enhancing the feeling of depth.
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. Surely, it was not an entire coincidence that the man who hired him for that position, Homer Saint-Gaudens
(son of the celebrated sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens
), had been the officer in charge of the American Army’s Camouflage Corps during World War I.
, William Walters, Arthur Conrad, Robert R. Hays, and others.
. His attempts to revive his painting career, while admirable, were less successful than he hoped, and (recalling his early days as an art critic) he gradually abandoned art in favor of writing articles for publication.
Everett Longley Warner died of a heart attack on October 20, 1963, at age 86. Nine years later, his painting studio was destroyed in a major fire, resulting in the tragic loss of many of his drawings, paintings, letters, notes and camouflaged ship models.
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
during both World Wars.
Early years
Warner was born in the small town of Vinton, IowaVinton, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 5,257 in the city, with a population density of . There were 2,299 housing units, of which 2,187 were occupied....
, where his father was a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. His mother was descended from a line of prominent missionaries (the Riggs family), who worked extensively for years with the Dakota Sioux Indians, translating and preserving their traditional language. Warner spent part of his childhood in Iowa, then moved to Washington DC, when his father was appointed Examiner for the Bureau of Pensions.
While completing high school, he also went to classes at the Corcoran Museum and the Washington Art Students League. Following that, he was employed for several years as an art critic for the (Washington) Evening Star. In 1900, he moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
with life drawing master George Bridgman
George Bridgman
George Brant Bridgman was a Canadian-American painter, writer, and teacher in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New York for some 45 years....
and illustrator Walter Clark
Walter Clark
Walter Ernest Clark was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1955 to 1958 as a Liberal-Progressive...
. His work was soon selected for inclusion in some of the country’s most prestigious art competitions, at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
, the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
,
Artistic career
In 1903, with earnings from his painting sales, Warner traveled to EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
(he would visit there again four years later), where he studied in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
, while also making sketching trips to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and other countries. Returning permanently to the US in 1909, he became affiliated with the Old Lyme Art Colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Old Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Main Street of the town is a historic district. The town has long been a popular summer resort and artists' colony...
, which (under the sponsorship of art patron Florence Griswold
Florence Griswold
Florence Ann Griswold was a resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut, USA who became the nucleus of the "Lyme Art Colony" in the early 20th century. Her home has since been made into the Florence Griswold Museum....
) had become a well-known center for American Impressionism. One of the leading participants in that colony was Childe Hassam
Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums...
, who was a close associate of Abbott H. Thayer, a painter who was widely known for his theories of natural camouflage
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
.
In 1915, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Warner won a silver medal in the painting category, and a bronze medal in printmaking. Featured prominently at that World's Fair were the allegorical sculptures of Iowa-born artist Sherry Edmundson Fry
Sherry Edmundson Fry
Sherry Edmundson Fry was an American sculptor, who also played a prominent role in U.S. Army camouflage during World War I.-Early years:...
, who was awarded a silver medal, and who, a few years later, teamed up with New Hampshire painter Barry Faulkner
Barry Faulkner
Barry Faulkner was an American artist who was primarily known for his murals. During World War I, he and sculptor Sherry Edmundson Fry organized artists for training as camouflage specialists , an effort that contributed to the founding of the American Camouflage Corps in 1917.-Background:Faulkner...
(Thayer’s cousin) to establish an artists’ camouflage corps. Ironically, at around this time, an inevitable decline began in the career prospects of all these young artists, many of whom were very gifted, largely because of the interest in Modern Art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
, which had been loudly introduced to the American public in 1913 at the famous New York Armory Show
Armory Show
Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...
. As noted by Helen K. Fusscas in A World Observed: The Art of Everett Longley Warner, “By introducing European modernism to this country, the Armory Show [eventually] made American Impressionism seem decidedly old-fashioned and uninteresting.” In the years that followed, Warner and the others continued to work as artists, to exhibit, and to win awards, but they never achieved the stature that they might once have anticipated.
WWI ship camouflage
When the US entered World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1917, Warner searched for ways by which he could contribute to the war effort. He considered a wide range of options, and even applied for the Camouflage Corps. For many years, one of his closest friends had been an MIT-trained scientist and Paris-trained artist named Charles Bittinger
Charles Bittinger
Charles Bittinger was an American artist who explored the use of scientific techniques for artistic purposes. During World War I, he also played a prominent role in the development of naval camouflage.-Background:...
(1879-1970), who would later play a prominent role in World War II ship camouflage. It may have been partly through Bittinger that Warner was approached by the US Shipping Board (in the summer of 1917) to carry out a camouflage scheme that had been invented by Thomas A. Edison. Using Edison’s specifications, it was Warner who applied that scheme to a former German ocean liner, the SS Ochenfels. Although the result was intended to be an “invisible ship,” it was not only readily visible but was structurally absurd as well, with the result that a section attached to the bow had fallen off before the ship left New York harbor. Recalling that fiasco, Warner said, “Thereafter I was for distortion patterns which make a ship hard to hit—not hard to see.”
A few months later, Warner presented his own ship camouflage plan to the US government. According to existing records, he argued that it is “impossible to make a ship invisible from a submarine, because she was almost invariably outlined against the sky and consequently would show up in silhouette. His proposal, therefore, was to break up the silhouette in such as way as to make it very difficult for the enemy to obtain the range.” This method, known officially as the Warner System, was one of six camouflage measures approved by the US, with others having been devised by George de Forest Brush
George de Forest Brush
George de Forest Brush was an American painter. In collaboration with his friend, the artist Abbott H. Thayer, he made contributions to military camouflage, as did his wife, aviator and artist Mary Taylor Brush, and their son, the sculptor Gerome Brush.-Background:Although Brush was born in...
(in partnership with his son Gerome Brush, and with Abbott H. Thayer), William Mackay
William MacKay
William Andrew Mackay was an American artist who created a series of murals about the achievements of Theodore Roosevelt. Those three murals, completed in 1936, were installed beneath the rotunda in the Roosevelt Memorial Hall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York...
, Lewis Herzog, Maximilian Toch
Maximilian Toch
Maximilian Toch was an American paint manufacturer and industrial chemist who developed a concrete filler method that was used in the construction of the Panama Canal. He was the co-owner of the New York firms Toch Brothers and the Standard Varnish Works, where he was head of research and production...
, and a person named Watson.
In February 1918, Warner accepted a commission as a Lieutenant in the US Naval Reserves, and was assigned to manage a design-based subdivision (in Washington, DC) of a newly formed American Camouflage Section. Among his fellow camouflage designers were Frederick Waugh (marine painter), Gordon Stevenson (portrait painter), John Gregory (British-born sculptor), Kenneth MacIntire, M. O’Connell (advertising artist), M. Nash, and a Navy ensign named Richardson. Concurrently, a research-based subdivision was set up at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, under the direction of Lieutenant Loyd A. Jones
Loyd A. Jones
Loyd A. Jones was an American scientist who worked for Eastman Kodak Company, where he was head of its physics department for many years. During World War I, he was also a major contributor to the development of naval camouflage....
, an optical physiologist. The officer in charge of both subdivisions was Lieutenant Harold Van Buskirk
Harold Van Buskirk
Harold Van Buskirk was an American architect and fencing champion, and a three-time member of the US Olympic fencing team...
.
None of this was without precedent, and to large extent these efforts were derived from the work of the British, who had set up a similar team in 1917. That unit was directed by British painter Norman Wilkinson
Norman Wilkinson (artist)
Norman Wilkinson CBE aka Norman L. Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but he was also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur...
, who is now widely credited with having originated the practice of dazzle-painting or dazzle camouflage
Dazzle camouflage
Dazzle camouflage, also known as Razzle Dazzle or Dazzle painting, was a camouflage paint scheme used on ships, extensively during World War I and to a lesser extent in World War II...
. In March 1918, Wilkinson served for four weeks as a camouflage advisor to the US Navy. His escort during that visit to the US (during which he lectured at harbors at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Norfolk on the purpose, design and application of dazzle painting) was Everett Warner.
Aerial paintings
In 1919, after World War I had ended, the Navy was typically slow to arrange for Warner’s discharge. Bored and frustrated, he devised a painting experiment, by which he could make positive use of his remaining months in the Navy. For a period of three or four weeks, he arranged for daily observation flights in military seaplanes over such areas as New York City and the Eastern seaboard. He became one of the first artists to sketch and paint from an aerial viewAerial landscape art
Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective above it—usually from a considerable distance—as it might be viewed from an aircraft or spacecraft. Sometimes the art is based not on direct observation but on aerial...
. He extended his experiment by making large paintings from the small ones he had made in flight. In planning the exhibition of these, it occurred to him that they should not hang on the wall, but be positioned on the floor, flat and face-up, while the audience would view them from the side, at an oblique angle (as in anamorphosis
Anamorphosis
Anamorphosis or anamorphism may refer to any of the following:*Anamorphosis, in art, the representation of an object as seen, for instance, altered by reflection in a mirror...
), thereby enhancing the feeling of depth.
Teaching
For 18 years, from 1924 to 1942, Warner was an associate professor of painting and design at the College of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Institute of TechnologyCarnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. Surely, it was not an entire coincidence that the man who hired him for that position, Homer Saint-Gaudens
Homer Saint-Gaudens
Homer Shiff Saint-Gaudens was the only child of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his wife Augusta . He served as the Director of the Art Museum of the Carnegie Institute and was a founder of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, a non-profit organization that maintained the family home as a museum...
(son of the celebrated sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...
), had been the officer in charge of the American Army’s Camouflage Corps during World War I.
World War II camouflage
In early 1941, after viewing a newsreel showing what he considered amateurish dazzle camouflage on Royal Navy Ships, he wrote a letter to the US Navy offering his services. At the time, the Navy did not anticipate using disruptive camouflage schemes and declined his offer. In the summer of 1942, after the US had entered World War II, Warner (then age 65) was asked to return to the Navy, to serve as Chief Civilian Aid to Commander Charles Bittinger (his close friend from earlier years) in the design of ship camouflage. As the techniques for observation had changed in the years since World War I, so too did ship deception needs. While much of World War II American ship camouflage was disruptive and deceptive (rather than directed toward invisibility), its newly restrained, geometric style (akin perhaps to Modern Art) was vastly different from the dazzle designs of the previous war. Among those who worked with Warner in developing the new designs were Bennet Buck, Sheffield KagySheffield Kagy
Sheffield Harold Kagy was an American printmaker, who also worked with Everett Warner to design US Navy camouflage during World War II....
, William Walters, Arthur Conrad, Robert R. Hays, and others.
Later years
At the end of World War II, Warner was discharged from the Navy. At age 68, he retired from teaching, and settled with his family in Westmoreland, New HampshireWestmoreland, New Hampshire
Westmoreland is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,874 at the 2010 census. Westmoreland is historically an agricultural town, with much arable farmland.-History:...
. His attempts to revive his painting career, while admirable, were less successful than he hoped, and (recalling his early days as an art critic) he gradually abandoned art in favor of writing articles for publication.
Everett Longley Warner died of a heart attack on October 20, 1963, at age 86. Nine years later, his painting studio was destroyed in a major fire, resulting in the tragic loss of many of his drawings, paintings, letters, notes and camouflaged ship models.
Published sources
- Roy R. Behrens, False Colors: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books, 2002. ISBN 0-9713244-0-9.
- ___ Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books, 2009. ISBN 9780971324466.
- Helen K. Fusscas, A World Observed: The Art of Everett Longley Warner 1877-1963. Exhibition catalog. Old Lyme, Connecticut: Florence Griswold Museum, 1992.
- Everett L. Warner, “The Science of Marine Camouflage Design” in Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society 14 (5) 1919, pp. 215-219.
- Everett L. Warner, “Fooling the Iron Fish: The Inside Story of Marine Camouflage” in Everybody’s Magazine (November 1919), pp. 102-109.