Reginald Marsh / South Pacific WWII ship camouflage

Reginald Marsh, painting of camouflaged ship

Of American artist Reginald Marsh, I know very little. For example, it isn’t clear if he served in the military. Apparently not, and yet on the website of the Naval History and Heritage Command, there are at least thirteen paintings by him that feature US Navy themes.  

One of them, titled The Navy’s Happy Medium, shown above, is a watercolor painting of an LSM (Landing Ship, Medium) ship. It is dated 1944, and is described as having been painted in “South Pacific jungle camouflage.” But did he observe it while on duty in the South Pacific? Perhaps not, since elsewhere he is said to have been an artist-correspondent for Life magazine during World War II, in the course of which he traveled to Brazil to paint scenes of American troops. 

Below (from the Archives of American Art) is a photograph of Marsh, with artists Louis Bouché (center), and William Zorach, most likely prior to WWII, holding what appears to be a WPA-era poster. It is related (if faintly) because Bouché actually was affiliated with wartime camouflage during WWI. Working for the US Navy, he had the same assignment as Thomas Hart Benton—that of making on-site colored paintings of the camouflage on any ships that entered the harbor, whether domestic or foreign.

Reginald Marsh, Louis Bouché and William Zorach