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
PLENTY OF DIZZY PAINTING WHEN CAMOUFLAGERS WORK in Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (Canada), December 23, 1940—
Eric Sloane, factory camouflage diagram
…All through the United Kingdom factories engaged in war work are gradually disappearing from view. More and more they are being heavily camouflaged so they may not be recognized by a person standing on the ground 500 yards away. Landmarks by which they might be readily identified have been given new faces.
In some places entire false avenues have been constructed to change the contours of manufacturing centers. The big foundry, say, with its rambling workshops marking the outskirts of the town, now may be nestled amid rows of framework houses. Or its walls may be hidden from view by weird painted patterns, many of them designed by Lonsdale Hands, who has become Britain’s highest-paid camouflage expert.…
It was only after the war started that Hands became interested in camouflage work. Prior to that he had spent much of his time designing newspaper advertisements for various employers in Fleet Street. One day he got married during his lunch hour, quit his job when refused an increase in pay and suddenly found himself preparing camouflage for one of the largest munition factories in the country.
Since then, his tasks have been increasing, especially since a special committee found many factories were not properly camouflaged and that full use of camouflage was not being taken advantage of by some big plants. Hands and his “Design Unit” have been called on to provide remedies.
•••
Richard Lonsdale-Hands (also cited as Frederick Richard de Prilleux Lonsdale-Hands) (1913-1969) is usually described as an industrial and package designer, advertising executive, and artist. He was the founder in 1937 of Richard Lonsdale-Hands Associates, which in time became one of the largest industrial and marketing firms in Europe. In a review of his paintings in 2011 in the New York Times, he was described as “an impassioned amateur painter” whose work was dismissed as a “shoo-in” for “bad painting.” The 12-page catalog for that exhibition is The Paintings of Richard Lonsdale-Hands (NY: Hirschi and Adler, 2011).
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
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| Gerald Handerson Thayer |
Over the years, I've written quite a lot about his collaborative work with his father, Abbott Handerson Thayer,
who is sometimes also known as "the father of camouflage." The father
blinds us to the son. Below are portions from a news article, reporting
on a public talk that Gerald presented in Rochester NY two years before
his father died. He is a great unknown. At some point he needs to be
written about.
•••
CAMOUFLAGE AND
PROTECTIVE COLORATION: Man Who Shares with Father Credit for Discovery,
Gives Interesting Lecture at Memorial Gallery in The Post Express (Rochester NY), March 17, 1919—
A lecture on “Camouflage and Protective Coloration” was delivered yesterday afternoon by Gerald H[anderson] Thayer at the Memorial Art Gallery. Dr. [Benjamin] Rush Rhees
introduced the speaker as “the illustrious son of an illustrious
father, to both of whom belongs the credit for the discovery of the
principles of camouflage and protective coloration.”
Excerpts from Thayer’s [slide illustrated] presentation are as follows—
Just how much of the camouflage used in the war is the result of the work of my father, Abbott [Handerson] Thayer,
and myself is not certain. We did not have any influence on the dazzle
system eventually used at sea, which was planned to deceive the man at
the periscope, so much as on the early marine system or the method
employed on land.
•••
Our book published before the war [Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom,
1909] was used in England, France and Germany. At first everything was
fantastically camouflaged, and not very effectively, but later the only
method used was to prop up on poles nets of cord or wire to which were
fastened bits of colored burlap. This was made in great quantities in
factories behind the lines, and at the front was used to cover guns,
earthworks, anything that was to be concealed from airplane cameras.
Sticks and dirt from the vincinity would then be thrown on top, and
whenever possible the result was tested by asking a friendly plane to
take a picture of it.
•••
Darwin’s father was the first to
notice that protective coloration was a wild animal trait. My father
and I found that there were certain well defined principles. The figure
of a pure white duck stands out conspiciously against a pure white
backgound. The shadows about the figure give it away. The same figure,
with a gray back but with a light underneath is invisible against a gray
background. The under parts must be lighter in color to offset the
shadow. That is the first principle, called “countershading.” It is very common in North America.
The second is “concealment.”
Strangely enough the gourgeous plumage of tropical birds is the best
example of this. They are hard to find in their brilliant surroundings.
The third principle is that of “disguise,”
when an animal pretends to be what it is not or not to be what it is.
The pattern of the coat is like the surroundings. A zebra, for instance,
is practically invisible standing against the sky in reeds or a clump
of bushes. The woodcock is another only it is like the ground on which
it builds its nest. Disguise is found all the way from butterflies to
skunks.
Many animals combine two of these principles in their coloration.
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
 |
Above British steamship Ascutney (center), showing camouflage, with Corle Castle on the right, 1918.
•••
Brian Freeland, “Blue Days at Sea” in Ottawa Citizen (Canada). August 10, 1944—
The storm blew over and the rest of our days was spent in chipping paint, at target practice, and applying camouflage to the ship’s boats…Our last job was finishing the new zebra stripe camouflage on the ship’s motor launch. The stripes are so applied that it is difficult to tell whether one has three boats approaching, whether two are going in opposite directions, or what you will. Our last naval act was to lower her tenderly into the sea, and beam with pride as, like Stephen Leacock’s Ronald, she rode madly off in all directions.
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' circu
•••
CAMOUFLAGE in Steed’s Review (London) September 9, 1918—
Mr. Louis Sonolet [French author and historian] gives an interesting account of the rapid growth of the art of camouflage, in The World's Work [later The Review of Reviews]. He says that General de Castelnau is responsible for the development of this necessary addition to an army’s equipment. At least, he was the first great leader who showed a lively interest in the work of the camoufleurs. He fitted up a workshop for them at Amiens, which was as well furnished with tools as possible. Since then there has been great progress, and every army in the field today has a special section, attached to the first regiment of engineers and commanded by a sub-lieutenant.
The first man to apply the art of camouflage in the present war was an instructor of artillery named Guirand de Scevola, who had acquired some mastery in the painting of portraits. It struck him that his guns would be much less easily picked out by enemy airplanes if they were painted in exact imitation of the spots on which they were placed. His experiment proved immensely successful, and very soon he began to gather volunteers around him. For the most part the men who came to him were artists whose names were celebrated throughout France. He is now the head of the entire camouflage division and has general charge of all the sections. Each of these includes from eighty to ninety men, but of them only perhaps a dozen are artists. The greater part of the strength is made up with skilled workmen—joiners, plasterers, carpenters, fitters and setters. The manufacture of materials used in camouflage is a large operation. It takes place in Paris in a huge central workshop, where 2500 women are employed, and some 150 soldiers belonging to the reserve.
A commander of a group of batteries who wishes to screen his guns places himself in communication with the head of the section, who at once sends out a foreman by special motor car. This man reconnoitres the position, and makes out a list of what is required. He then returns to his headquarters at speed and the work of preparation is immediately begun. When the different elements constituting the camouflage are ready they are hastened by motor lorry to their destination, and are put in position. This always done at night, and the greatest care is taken to avoid any noise. It is a very hard task to set up camouflage in this way, especially in front trenches.
Camouflage operations fall into two distinct categories. The first deceives the enemy by means of perspective, and the second hides and protects something or someone from enemy blows by means of deception. The ingenuity of the camoufleurs is specially shown in the subtle imitation of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. Behind the line entire villages of huts have lost that uniform and tedious wood coloring which conforms to the general pattern, and are painted almost luxuriously in tones of emerald or brown, while rustic thatch replaces the traditional corrugated iron. So well is the disguising done that M. Sonulet is able to tell of a pigeon house abandoned by the pigeons who were no longer able to recognise it when it was clothed with the colour of the forests round it! Horses with light coats must resign themselves to being painted from head to foot with a stone color, especially prepared for the purpose.
The camoufleurs, though they know how to improvise when chance brings them face to face with an unforeseen contingency, are none the less obedient to a mass of principles and rules. Camouflage is a science as well as an art, and has to be carefully studied. A series of lectures are given, and it is in the schools of the French camoufleurs that Englishmen, Americans and Belgians, entrusted in their armies with the same work, have been trained. The camoufleurs are very popular indeed in the army, not only for the services they render, but also for their “go" and liveliness and the spark of imagmation which they bring into the midst of the cruel realities of war.
Camouflage is, of course, no new art. It has always existed, and the famous Horse of Troy is perhaps the oldest example of it. Shakespeare tells us of how Malcolm's army advanced to the attack of Dunsinane screened by big leafy branches which each soldier had been ordered to carry. In the Middle Ages towers and walls were painted with black and white squares, the better to hide the loopholes.
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
 |
| Cover of Tambour Battant by Louis Sonolet |
 |
| Sale-priced books on camouflage / free shipping |
 |
| Jacob Epstein portrait by George Charles Beresford / 1916 |
Portrait of Jacob Epstein / photographer unknown
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
This is one example of an anti-German cartoon, a folding paper puzzle. The top image shows the flat unfolded puzzle picture of what appears to be four pigs. Where is the fifth pig? it asks in French. And when the paper is folded, as shown in the lower half, the pigs have magically become a German officer and his helmet.
 |
| James Cagney (1932), film lobby card |
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
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| Fundraising on Charles River |
•••
CAMPAIGN ON THE BOOM in Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids IA), April 10, 1918—
The Great Lakes Naval Training Station band, one of the most noted organizations of its kind in the world, paid Cedar Rapids a visit late yesterday afternoon and gave a marching concert downtown. The band minus the presence of the famous leader, John Phillip Sousa, is on an extended tour of the middle west states in the interest of the Liberty Loan. Coming to this city from Mount Vernon [Iowa] over the interurban, the band paraded the business district and was given a big ovation at every corner. A drill team of eight jackies in uniform gave a gun drill at several points where the band halted.
Considerable interest is being manifest in the camouflage illustrations in the vacant lot at Third Avenue and Third Street. The odd pieces are painted in the same colors as guns in the war zone which are camouflaged to prevent being located by the enemy’s big guns. It is also a boost for the Third Liberty Loan, asking the people not to compel Cedar Rapids to camouflage its final subscription.
camouflaged recruiting boats
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
 |
•••
Anon, DIET IS GOING OUT, CAMOUFLAGE COMING IN, SAYS MODERN SYSTEM in Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha NE) November 27, 1917, p. 9—
The value of camouflage is spreading like wildfire in all directions, and there is almost nothing you won’t be able to do with it, when it has been throughly applied.
At the style review in Chicago, Mme Le Mar is instructing women how to disguise themselves so that they may have double chins that won’t show. And if you don’t look as if you had a double chin, you might as well have as many as are comfortable. A little science in the way you dress and hold your head will give the optical illusion of a perfect outline at the throat.
Diet is going out. The really modern system is camouflage.
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
