Norman Wilkinson (artist)
Encyclopedia
Norman Wilkinson CBE
aka Norman L. Wilkinson (24 November 1878 – 31 May 1971) 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. During World War I, Wilkinson was the first to propose the use of disruptive coloration in naval camouflage
, for which he coined the well-known term "dazzle painting" or dazzle camouflage
.
and at St. Paul's Cathedral Choir School in London. His early artistic training occurred in the vicinity of Portsmouth
and Cornwall
, and at Southsea
School of Art, where he was later a teacher as well. He also studied with seascape painter Louis Grier. At age 21, he studied academic figure painting in Paris, but by then he was already interested in maritime subject matter.
patrols in the Dardanelles
, Gallipoli
and Gibraltar
, and, beginning in 1917, to a minesweeping operation at HMNB Devonport
.
In April 1917, German submarines (called U-boats) achieved unprecedented success in torpedo
attacks on British ships, sinking nearly eight per day. In his autobiography, Wilkinson remembers the moment when, in a flash of insight, he arrived at what he thought would be a way to respond to the submarine threat (Wilkinson 1969, p. 79).
He decided that, since it was all but impossible to hide a ship on the ocean (if nothing else, the smoke from its smokestacks would give it away), a far more productive question would be: How can a ship be made to be more difficult to aim at from a distance through a periscope
? In his own words, he decided that a ship should be painted "not for low visibility, but in such a way as to break up her form and thus confuse a submarine officer as to the course on which she was heading" (Wilkinson 1969, p. 79).
After initial testing, Wilkinson's plan was adopted by the British Admiralty, and he was placed in charge of a naval camouflage unit, housed in basement studios at the Royal Academy of Arts. There, he and about two dozen associate artists and art students (camoufleurs, model makers, and construction plan preparators) devised dazzle camouflage schemes, applied them to miniature models, tested the models (using experienced sea observers), and prepared construction diagrams that were used by other artists at the docks (one of whom was Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth
) in painting the actual ships. In early 1918 Wilkinson was assigned to Washington, D.C. for a month, where he served as a consultant to the U.S. Navy, in connection with its establishment of a comparable unit (headed by Harold Van Buskirk
, Everett Warner
, and Loyd A. Jones
)(Hartcup 1980; Behrens 2002, 2009; Wilkinson 1969).
After World War I, there was some contention about who had originated dazzle painting. When Wilkinson applied for credit to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
, he was challenged by several others. At the end of a legal procedure, he was formally declared the inventor and awarded monetary compensation (Wilkinson 1969, pp. 94–95).
(RI) becoming its President in 1936, an office he held until 1963. He was elected Honourable Marine Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron
in 1919. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Marine Artists, and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours. He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1948.
Wilkinson created for the first class smoking room of the RMS Titanic a painting titled Plymouth Harbour (which perished when the ship went down), as well as a comparable painting, titled The Approach to the New World, which hung in the same location on the Titanics sister ship, the RMS Olympic.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
aka Norman L. Wilkinson (24 November 1878 – 31 May 1971) was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint
Drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used...
. He was primarily a marine painter, but he was also an illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
artist, and wartime camoufleur. During World War I, Wilkinson was the first to propose the use of disruptive coloration in naval 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...
, for which he coined the well-known term "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...
.
Background
Wilkinson was born in Cambridge, England, and attended school at Berkhamsted School in HertfordshireHertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
and at St. Paul's Cathedral Choir School in London. His early artistic training occurred in the vicinity of Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
and Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, and at Southsea
Southsea
Southsea is a seaside resort located in Portsmouth at the southern end of Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire in England. Southsea is within a mile of Portsmouth's city centre....
School of Art, where he was later a teacher as well. He also studied with seascape painter Louis Grier. At age 21, he studied academic figure painting in Paris, but by then he was already interested in maritime subject matter.
Illustration career
His illustration career began in 1898, when his work was first accepted by the Illustrated London News, for which he then continued to work for many years, as well as for the Illustrated Mail. Throughout his life, he was a prolific poster artist, designing numerous posters for the London and North Western Railway, and the London Midland and Scottish Railway (Cole 1992). It was mostly because of his fascination with the sea that he traveled extensively to such locations as Spain, Germany, Italy, Malta, Greece, Aden, Bahamas, United States, Canada, and Brazil.World War I camouflage
During World War I, while serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, he was assigned to submarineSubmarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
patrols in the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
, Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
and Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, and, beginning in 1917, to a minesweeping operation at HMNB Devonport
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
.
In April 1917, German submarines (called U-boats) achieved unprecedented success in torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
attacks on British ships, sinking nearly eight per day. In his autobiography, Wilkinson remembers the moment when, in a flash of insight, he arrived at what he thought would be a way to respond to the submarine threat (Wilkinson 1969, p. 79).
He decided that, since it was all but impossible to hide a ship on the ocean (if nothing else, the smoke from its smokestacks would give it away), a far more productive question would be: How can a ship be made to be more difficult to aim at from a distance through a periscope
Periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form it consists of a tube with mirrors at each end set parallel to each other at a 45-degree angle....
? In his own words, he decided that a ship should be painted "not for low visibility, but in such a way as to break up her form and thus confuse a submarine officer as to the course on which she was heading" (Wilkinson 1969, p. 79).
After initial testing, Wilkinson's plan was adopted by the British Admiralty, and he was placed in charge of a naval camouflage unit, housed in basement studios at the Royal Academy of Arts. There, he and about two dozen associate artists and art students (camoufleurs, model makers, and construction plan preparators) devised dazzle camouflage schemes, applied them to miniature models, tested the models (using experienced sea observers), and prepared construction diagrams that were used by other artists at the docks (one of whom was Vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth
Edward Wadsworth
Edward Alexander Wadsworth was an English artist, most famous for his close association with Vorticism. He painted, often in tempera, coastal views, abstracts, portraits and still-life...
) in painting the actual ships. In early 1918 Wilkinson was assigned to Washington, D.C. for a month, where he served as a consultant to the U.S. Navy, in connection with its establishment of a comparable unit (headed by 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...
, Everett Warner
Everett Warner
Everett Longley Warner was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage during both World Wars.-Early years:...
, and 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....
)(Hartcup 1980; Behrens 2002, 2009; Wilkinson 1969).
After World War I, there was some contention about who had originated dazzle painting. When Wilkinson applied for credit to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
A Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors is a periodic Royal Commission of the United Kingdom used to hear patent disputes.On October 6, 1919 a Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors was convened to hear 11 claims for the invention of the tank....
, he was challenged by several others. At the end of a legal procedure, he was formally declared the inventor and awarded monetary compensation (Wilkinson 1969, pp. 94–95).
World War II camouflage
In the second World War, Wilkinson was again assigned to camouflage, not in dazzle-painting ships (which had fallen out of favour) but with the British Air Ministry, where his primary responsibility was the concealment of airfields (Goodden 2007).Awards and honors
In 1906, Wilkinson was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water ColoursRoyal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours , initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, , is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.-History:In 1831 the society was founded as the New Society of Painters in Water...
(RI) becoming its President in 1936, an office he held until 1963. He was elected Honourable Marine Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron
Royal Yacht Squadron
The Royal Yacht Squadron is the most prestigious yacht club in the United Kingdom and arguably the world. Its clubhouse is located in Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom...
in 1919. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Marine Artists, and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours. He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1948.
Exhibits and collections
One of the finest marine painters of the century, his work has been represented in a wide variety of collections, galleries and other venues, among them the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Fine Art Society, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Abbey Gallery, Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham, and Beaux Arts Gallery.Wilkinson created for the first class smoking room of the RMS Titanic a painting titled Plymouth Harbour (which perished when the ship went down), as well as a comparable painting, titled The Approach to the New World, which hung in the same location on the Titanics sister ship, the RMS Olympic.
Further reading
- Behrens, Roy R. (2002), False Colors: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books. ISBN 0-9713244-0-9.
- ___ (2009), Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books. ISBN 9780971324466.
- Cole, Beverley and Richard Durack (1992), Railway Posters, 1923-1947. London: Laurence King.
- Goodden, Henrietta (2007), Camouflage and Art: A Design for Deception in World War 2. London: Unicorn Press. ISBN 978-0-906290-87-3.
- Hartcup, Guy (1980), Camouflage: A History of Concealment and Deception in War. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Newark, Tim (2007), Camouflage. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-51347-7.
- Wilkinson, Norman (1919), "The Dazzle Painting of Ships," as reprinted (in abridged form) in James Bustard, Camouflage. Exhibition catalog. Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council, 1988, unpaged.
- ___ (1922), "Naval Camouflage" in Encyclopædia Britannica. 12th edition. Vol. 1, pp. 546–547.
- ___ (1969), A Brush with Life. London: Seeley Service.
See also
- CamouflageCamouflageCamouflage 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...
- Everett WarnerEverett WarnerEverett Longley Warner was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage during both World Wars.-Early years:...
- Edward WadsworthEdward WadsworthEdward Alexander Wadsworth was an English artist, most famous for his close association with Vorticism. He painted, often in tempera, coastal views, abstracts, portraits and still-life...