?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
TOM LEA (1907-2001) "Fighter pilots back from a tough six-hour mission . . ."
Grisaille watercolor on paper, 1943. Image measures 155x204 mm; 6x8 1/4 inches, on 9x12-inch sheet. Signed and dated "Tom Lea, Tunisia 1943" in image, lower right, signed and captioned in lower margin. Tipped to matte.
The full caption reads "Fighter pilots back from a rough six-hour mission and gathered at Operations for interrogation have their own thoughts while they sweat out the possible return of the missing men of their squadron. Done on Cape Bon, Tunisia, in Africa, September 1943 / To Bill and Jo - with the affection of their friend, Tom Lea." Preserved paper from former frame back bears a clipped note in Lea's hand stating "In memory of Fergus Meek Jr. and his squadron."
While Lea is best known for his cowboy and western imagery, his paintings and illustrations of war, created while a combat artist and journalist for Life Magazine, rank among the most powerful and collectible of his oeuvre. They are often achingly beautiful in their rawness. As Lea stated: "I did not report hearsay; I did not imagine, or fake, or improvise; I did not cuddle up with personal emotion, moral notion, or political opinion about War with a capital W. I reported in pictures what I saw with my own two eyes, wide open" (Huard, Paul H.; Historynet.com).
