camouflage / his master looks exactly like our egg man

Above W. Heath Robinson, "Camouflage vs. camouflage" from his invention series. Public domain. 

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John Lewis (who was himself a WWII camoufleur), Heath Robinson: Artist and Comic Genius (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p 36—

When working in the garden he [British illustrator W. Heath Robinson] was in the habit of wearing the most dreadful old clothes and because of this was more than once mistaken for the gardener. On one occasion an artist dressed in a pale violet-grey suit, with a black velvet collar, called on the Robinsons. He saw Will digging in the garden and shouted across to him: “Is your master in, my man?” “I’Il go and see,” muttered Will and disappeared indoors, only to appear a moment later in a tidier jacket and with his hair brushed, to make himself known to the other artist. What the outcome of this was, I do not know. In his autobiography he tells this tale and gives the unnamed visitor the soubriquet of Renée de Boudoir.

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Max Eastman, Great Companions (New York: Farrar Straus and Cudahy, 1942)—

[In his later life, American philosopher John Dewey] moved out on Long Island, and preserved his contact with reality by raising eggs and vegetables and selling them to the neighbors… [He received an urgent order one day] from a wealthy neighbor for a dozen eggs, and the children being in school, he himself took the eggs over in a basket. Going by force of habit to the front door, he was told brusquely that deliveries were made in the rear. He trotted obediently around to the back door, feeling both amused and happy. Some time later, he was giving a talk to the women's club of the neighborhood, and his wealthy customer, when he got up to speak, exclaimed in a loud whisper: "Why, he looks exactly like our egg man!"  

potpourri of colored angles, lines and geometric forms

Above World War I photograph of a dock in which, as seen in the background, an unknown ship in drydock is being repaired. Note its dazzle camouflage scheme.

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FUTURIST ART ON SHIPS in Oakland Tribune (Oakland CA) June 23, 1918—

At last the futurists have found themselves. Rather has the world found them.

Their theories and practice are adopted by the Navy Department to camouflage the ships that go down to the sea, as witness the good ship that rode in the harbor during the week, a potpourri of colored angles, lines and geometric forms that recall visions of that famous room at the Palace of Fine Arts during the [1915 Panama-Pacific International] Exposition—the “My God Room.” You remember it?
 
Dynamism—movement—is what the perpetrators of the pictures were striving for, movement as opposed to a static state.

And is not that the thing sought for by the Navy—a movement of objects that are disassociated with ships, to the consternation of the gunners who roam the sea?

Objects in movement multiply themselves, becoming deformed in pursuit of each other, like hurried vibrations. Thus does the law work out for the protection of the ships of the Allies, justifying the theories of Balla, Picasso, Picabia and the rest.

The stories of Courbet, and Manet, and Monet and Degas are fresh in mind—the contempt of the people; then their acceptance of the innovators, followed by their standardization, by which the rest of the world of art is measured. Such is the psychology of the mediocre.

Shall the war vindicate the theories of [Giacomo] Balla and his confrerés?

RELATED LINKS    

 Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work?

 Nature, Art, and Camouflage

 Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage

 Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage

 Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage

 Optical science meets visual art

 Disruption versus dazzle

 Chicanery and conspicuousness

 Under the big top at Sims' circus

he only wants the photograph, not the painting itself

The American painter Albert Sterner (1863-1946) was the father of architect Harold Sterner (1895-1976), who, during World War I, was assigned—as were Thomas Hart Benton and Louis Bouché—to make records of all camouflaged ships that entered various harbors (New York harbor in his case). The father was a friend of sculptor William Zorach, who recalled the following story in his autobiography—

William Zorach, Art Is My Life: The autobiography of William Zorach. Cleveland OH: World Publishing, 1967, p 131—

When the man [who had asked about his portraiture] came over to see Sterner, he told him his work was very expensive. That didn't bother the man and Sterner painted the portrait. The man studied it and was satisfied.    

He asked, “Can you tell me where I can get his photographed? I would like camouflageabout two hundred and fifty prints.”

Sterner said, "Peter Juley does all my photography. He'll be glad to do it and you will be well satisfied.”

He said, “Will you arrange to have two hundred and fifty prints made and have them sent to my office?”

Sterner said, "Certainly. And where shall I send the painting?”

“Oh,” he said, “you keep the painting. I don’t want the painting. I just want the photographs.”

So Sterner said, "What's the idea?"

The man said, "You know, I'm a broker and I want to send these photographs around to my clients so they can see I'm a very good looking and upright gentleman and they'll be glad to have me handle their business."

WWI camoufleur / penniless and nearly dispossessed

Camoufleur Frank H. Schwarz

We’ve blogged about American artist / camoufleur Frank H. Schwarz once before, but no doubt he deserves another round of applause. I wish I could tell you where we found this newspaper headshot of him, with the headline WINS PRIX DE ROME, and the brief notice below. The date is 1921, and his name is incorrectly spelled as Schwartz (which we have corrected below). Here it is—

The story of Frank Schwarz, twenty-six-year-old artist of Greenwich Village, New York City, reads more like a novel or play than a real true account. For Schwarz, who was penniless and about to be dispossessed from his $12-a-month “studio,” is today the most talked of person in the world of art. He has won the most coveted of art awards, the Prix de Rome, which is a three-year fellowship in the American Academy of Art in Rome, carrying with it transportation expenses and an annuity of $1,000 during the three-year course. Schwarz won the award with his painting A Tribute to Heroism. He is a native of Chicago and studied art there, working in cheap restaurants in order to earn his meals and a dollar or two for lodgings. He is a war veteran, having served in France as a member of the [US Army] camouflage section.