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Maurice G. Debonnet, ship camouflage sketches (1918)
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Maurice G. Debonnet, “Camouflage and the Art of Using Paint in Warfare” (with illustrations by the author) in the Painters Magazine and Paint and Wallpaper Dealer. April 1918, pp. 180-182.
Confusingly, we’ve also found a reference to what may be the same article (or is it a different, subsequent article?) but with the title “Marine Paint Camouflage,” which was apparently published in the June 1919 issue of the same magazine, which we haven’t yet found.
That other reference is in the June 1919 issue of Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter. It describes that second article as “the most instructive and iluminating article on this important branch of the service in the late war that ever has been written. In it the author reveals for the first time the methods used, the various types of camouflage, the reasons for their use, illustrating it with his own drawings and with photographs of many of the boats on which camouflage was used. It shows how the wild dreams of the cubists became realities working for the cause of democracy the world over.”
In the first article (April 1918), Debonnet’s drawings are reproduced (as shown above), but there are no photographs of camouflaged ships. To make things even more confusing, there is another notice in the August 11, 1919 issue of Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter (p. 51), which again makes note of Debonnet’s article, but in a much shortened form and without any references to photographs of camouflaged ships.
Maurice G[eorges] Debonnet was a French-born American painter, printmaker, and interior designer. He was born in Paris in 1871. He immigrated to the US at age 20, arriving in Boston in 1892, then soon after settled in New York. Over the years, it appears that he resided in Bayside, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. His wife was Marie (Hebding) Debonnet. He was associated with the Society of Independent Artists, the Salmagundi Club, the Brooklyn Society of Modern Artists, and other groups. He died in 1946.
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Camouflage a Child of Paris
…The confusing and baffling name, camouflage, that has been recently adopted in our language, is by no means a newly-coined word. Camouflage is a word derived from the French language, It has been said to be a child of Paris' underworld, and there may be some truth In that, as camoufe in slang means candle, while the old French word camoufet, also meaning candle, are the roots of the word camouflage.
Perhaps dark deeds were hidden by the smoke of the old-fashioned tallow candles. The word has been in use for a long time by French actors and means to make up. In the Belgian language Flemish) the word kafouma, meaning with smoke, has long been in use, but whatever may be its origin—camouflage—(was Eve the first one to practice it?) undoubtedly means to disguise, conceal, to bluff, to make something look like nothing. It means here specifically the art of fooling the enemy's eye. Camouflage (kam-oo-flah-zhe) is practiced by the camoufleur or brush fooler.
The American khaki, color of earth, dust and leaves, the German, field gray, the French, horizon blue, and previously the coloring of the body of the American Indian, and even the blueish gray peculiar to the atmospheric coloring of the South, was reproduced in the Confederate uniforms.
One of the first extensive modern applications of camouflage was made by General Smuts, in the Boer War, when all the paraphernalia was painted with colors that harmonized well with their surroundings. In Italy the mountain troops, fighting in the snow, paint themselves white in the daytime, black at night. and follow the seasons with daubs of yellow, blue, red and golden tints, as may be necessary to reproduce the color effects of nature acting as background.
Based on Animal Coloration
The use of paint in camouflage ta primarily based on the laws underlying the protective coloration of animals first mentioned by Poulton (1856) and the Thayers (1896-1902-1909) who said "that protective or disguised coloration falls into two main divisions—the one including concealing colors, mainly based on counter shading, the other including mimicry. The goal of the former principle is the rendering of animals invisible in their natural haunts. Mimicry aims at deceptive visibility.
The need of markings is a concomitant of the principle of "obliterative shading," as when an unmarked solid object has been reduced to a perfectly fat monochrome by counter shading— so that it lacks all attributes of solidity—it may be quite undistinguishable, provided that its background is of a similar monochromic flat tint.
In 'pattern perspective,' It will show that not an exact reproduction of the actual background, but a picture of that pattern as it looks when more or less altered and refined by distance, is essential to the concealing of an object, or, in other words, that the object's obliteratively shaded surface must bear a picture of such background as would be seen through it if it were transparent."
The subject of nautical camouflage is Interesting. In 1902 a patent was issued to two Americans, A.H. [Abbott Handerson] Thayer and Jerome [Gerome] Brush. The specifications mentions that the reason any object is easily seen, no matter what color it is painted, is because when near enough to be distingulshed its various surfaces reflect, respectively, different amounts of light: the upward surfaces being the lightest, the vertical surfaces less light, the surfaces facing downward less and the deep shadows still less. When far away, so that its various surfaces blend into one, a ship may be visible. owing to the contrast of the whole object with the surrounding sky and water. A white ship may be seen against so bright a sky as to look almost like a black one. Therefore it makes little difference what color a ship is painted, if it be painted only one color, as either the whole ship will silhouette against the sky beyond or its different parts will present a strong contrast of light and shade. In short the process means painting normally light surfaces dark, darkened surfaces light and coloring the shaded portions with paint that would neutralize and blur the definition of the ship.
Angles Are Effaced
One of the theories—perhaps the best one in the merging of the hull and upper work with the sea and sky is that the color scheme is so applied that with distance it resolves itself into gray and that with the aid of other splotches of paint all angles are effaced, and painting the different areas of the ship so that only one will show its true color at a distance.
For instance, a section near the stern may be painted with large irregular spots of dark green, purple and red, while on a section next to it is painted smaller spots and lighter tones of the same color. Still further forward another area is covered with still smaller spots, so that as each area comes to its proper distance from the eye, it will become gray and of low visibility, while the larger spots will be glaring.
Let us see how the general principles of paint camouflage were and are applied: At the battle of Somme a road was covered by the French camoufleur with three kilometers (9,840 feet) of canvas painted to imitate grass, rocks, etc., so as to allow the troops, guns, etc., to pass under, and for three days they were undetected by the enemy planes.
Forts in Deceptive Garments
Forts and their surroundings are so painted that they may look one day like a vast expanse of green grass and the next day be transformed to well laid tennis courts or summer cottages. A whole village street, with its old-fashioned houses and thatch roofs, were painted on canvas and with the help of netting dipped in paint, guns, batteries and moving troops were constantly surging to a given point. "Foiled again!" said the Hun.
The moving pictures of the British tanks in action, shown recently in this country, well exemplify the meaning of camouflage. The crawling land ships are covered with streaks and patches of varicolored paint, so arranged as to appear part of the ground if viewed at a distance.
Escort wagons, caissons, tractors, moving war supply trains, locomotives and depots, are so treated that almost under any atmospheric conditions and whether in woods or open country, the deceptive art is found to be useful to a great degree.
Guns of large and small caliber are disguised to break up their well known contours. Usually they are painted black on top and white underneath, so that they cease to look round, a few strokes of brown and green are thrown in for good measure and presto! The futurist composition, blends so well with the landscape that only occasional flashes of fire remain as tell tales.
Men on outpost duty, including wagon drivers, troops in march disguised with painted canvas or burlap; battery observation posts and observers are sometimes painted three times a day, and to see soldiers painting piles of steel helmets gray and khaki colors is no uncommon sight. Field observer's clothes are decorated with stripes of various shades of brown and green and patches of yellow, so that they become part of trees when up in them for observations.
Dobbin Also Camouflaged
In 1914 the Russian Cossacks painted their white and gray horses green to make them harmonize with the foliage, in order that their movements could not be seen by scouting airplanes.
The French, In 1915, rendered horses as nearly invisible as possible on the field of battle by staining them a khaki color and later a horizon blue. Can the reader imagine being awakened with a very dark taste in his mouth and seeing yellow, pink and green horses? Dummy horses and wounded soldiers used for concealing observers and the horse of Troy are known facts, but not amiss here perhaps is the story of the Anzacs serving In France in 1916 who found that near their sector at [censored], a white horse which seemed to set as a signal to the enemy. Where he was drawing a plow one day shells fell the next day. They went out at night and painted the horse brown.
Naturally signs and lettering of all kinds are necessary from the stenciling of numbers on shells to the marking of cannons, etc., with animals or other figures to replace the numerals formerly used. This bit of deceit keeps from the enemy any information regarding the number of the object or the number of the regiment to which it belongs.
Submarines come in also for their bit of decoration. In a well-remembered memoranda sent to the United States by Germany in February 1917, it was said that "regular American passenger boats might ply their trades, if such steamers where painted in a peculiar way." In 1907 the Hague Convention approved Article 5, which provides that hospital ships "shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a meter and a half in breadth" so that they will not be fired upon. This practice was abandoned on the ground that it was simply pointing out targets to the German gunners!
Is a Necessary Precaution
Before 1898 our warships were painted white and war gray during the Spanish war. Previous to the German submarine atrocities our merchantmen took to camouflaging, which became obligatory with the Treasury Department's decree (1917) that "every ship leaving this port should be camoulaged or Insurance rates increased accordingly. The cost of camouflaging merchantmen is about $200. When the giant German submarine Deutschland sailed from Baltimore in 1916, she was painted so as to resemble the colors of the sea as nearly as possible: the upper portion of the vessel's sides which protruded from the water, when the ship travels on the surface, wore decorated to resemble sea waves. The bluish green color of the waves were capped with white to simulate foam.
The well-remembered sinking of the United States four-master Lyman M. Law by an Austrian submarine, near the coast of Sardinia (February 1917), recalls the fact that the submarine was painted ash color with black deck.
Periscopes have been painted with parallel stripes in various colors of the spectrum, so that when the colors are refracted they are converted into a white ray, making it very difficult for the enemy to see the periscope. In 1917 the German undersea craft coated some of their periscopes with aluminum so as to make them less visible.
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Article by Debonnet (1918)
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Melts Into the Horizon
In a series of experiments a ship was so successfully painted that at three miles it seemed to melt in the horizon. In the case of large steamships no accurate range could be made for shelling at three to five miles—the usual shelling distance while at eight miles the ship disappeared into nothing.
Of the many painting systems in use, a glance at the following will show the more promising: Brush—Black and wiite only.
Herzog—Curved color line.
Toch—Wavy lines with blurred edges.
Mackay—Three color combination.
Warner—Pale violet and green.
During the first two years of the war color was not thought to be necessary; black and white or two shades of gray were used, although the late T. T. Jane, the well known naval expert had the decks, etc., of a torpedo boat painted a mottled black, white and gray to imitate nature's camouflage of sea birds. with their markings of black, white and gray. It was a success as seen from shore, but when viewed in fall light against the sky, it became a dark spot.
But, no matter how painted to attain low visibility, be it so well done that to the laymen it looks like decorations from the Mogul Emperor's palace at Delhi, or bunches of green flowers with pink popcorn couchant, cubist's blue and green dreams or again futurist's fancies with purple bodies and black limbs—the color schemes used do not conceal the ships, but if the color areas are large and the contrasts strong in value, they make it harder accurately to point a gun, but nevertheless a vessel so treated, when standing with the sun behind, appears as a large mass of very dark color.
Painters Are "On the Job"
In conclusion it may be said that if any one with knowledge of paint and its application is looking for special entertainment in the way of fooling the enemy, the Camouflage Corps will receive him with open arms.
The last word has not yet been told because every day paint will have something new to say, and from the reports of progress so far made, one may rest assured that the painters, having shown their patriotism in one way of another, are right on the job helping with all their might and skill to make "the world safe for democracy."
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
