Lea was born on July 11, 1907, in El Paso, Texas, to Thomas Calloway Lea Jr. and Zola May (née Utt).[2][3] From 1915 to 1917, his father was mayor of El Paso. As mayor, his father made a public declaration that he would arrest Pancho Villa if he dared enter El Paso, after Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, 1916.[2] Villa then responded by offering a thousand pesos gold bounty on Lea.[2] For six months Tom and his brother Joe had to have a police escort to and from school, and there was a 24-hour guard on the house.[4][5]
In 1927, he wed Nancy June Taylor, a fellow art student. In 1930, Norton suggested that Tom take an art tour of Europe to study the masters. He and Nancy went to Paris and saw an exhibit of Eugène Delacroix at the Louvre, and Delacroix was his "favorite". Next they traveled to Florence, Orvieto, Rome, Capri. Then, after a four-month tour, it was back to Le Havre to catch the SS Ile de France.[7]
After the tour of Italy, they moved to Santa Fe to be with other artists and be in the Southwest. When Nancy became ill (a botched appendectomy), they moved to El Paso, and Lea found work from the New Deal art projects.[8]
In 1937, he started doing illustration work, and this led to a partnership with a friend of his father, author J. Frank Dobie. Dobie wrote about the rough life of settling the Texas frontier and Lea's illustrations are mostly of cowboys and the wild Texas landscapes.[6] While painting a mural in El Paso Federal Courthouse (Pass of the North), he met and married his second wife, Sarah Catherine Beane (née Dighton), in July 1938.[10] Sarah had come from Monticello, Illinois, to El Paso to visit friends. Sarah had a son, James (Jim), from a previous marriage whom Lea adopted.[citation needed] While painting his courthouse mural, Lea also met artist José Cisneros and they were able to connect as friends and business contacts.[11] That same year his started his lifelong partnership with Carl Hertzog (Jean Carl Hertzog Sr.), an El Paso book designer and typographer. 1937–1938 would prove to be the antithesis of 1936, providing Lea with three lifelong partners and friends.[12]
In 1940, he applied for and won the Rosenwald Fellowship, but by the end of the summer of 1941, he got a telegram from LIFE asking him to go to sea with the United States Navy on a North Atlantic Patrol. In the fall of 1941, he decided to paint for LIFE as war artist and correspondent aboard a destroyer.[13] He traveled all over the world with the United States military from 1941 to 1945. This included: China, Great Britain, Italy, India, North Africa, North Atlantic, the Middle East, and the Western Pacific. He went on deployment with the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the Pacific Ocean in 1942, where he met the famous Army Air Corps pilot Jimmy Doolittle. Lea was on board the Hornet (September 15, 1942) when the USS Wasp was sunk by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine.[14] He painted several pictures of the sinking of the Wasp. In 1943, during his visit to China, he met Theodore H. White, and he painted the portraits of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong Mei-ling; and General Claire Lee Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers.[6]
Some of Lea's most impactful work came during his time as a combat correspondent with the United States 1st Marine Division at the Battle of Peleliu. The battle, which saw the Marines suffer heavy losses amidst fierce Japanese resistance, became the subject of controversy due to the questionable strategic value of the island.[15][16]Lea described his time there as "…trying to keep from getting killed and trying to memorize what I saw and felt."[17] His vivid depiction of the beach landing and subsequent battle across the island included two of his most famous works, The Price and The Two-Thousand Yard Stare, both of which spotlight the human toll of the battle.
In 1947, Lea finished a graphite sketch on kraft paper of his wife called Study for Sarah in the Summertime. He had started the sketch two years earlier, about six months after he got home from the war. The life size work (71" × 30¼") was based on a photograph, taken of Sarah in the backyard of their home at 1520 Raynolds Boulevard in El Paso, that he had carried in his wallet throughout the war. An oil painting, Sarah in the Summertime (67" × 32"), was then done from the sketch. He spent longer on this combined work than any other painting.[18][19]
After finishing his last novel, The Hands of Cantu (an account of horse training in 16th-century Nueva Vizcaya) in 1964, Lea traveled to Boston to meet with his publishers, Little, Brown and Company. He told them that he wasn't interested in another novel, so they suggested a book about his pictures. This 1968 work, A Picture Gallery, was his "autobiography", writing of why and when he did his paintings. Working on A Picture Gallery would lead him to once again focus on painting and turn away from working on literature.[20] Right before finishing this work, Baylor University paid tribute to his writing by bestowing him, and his long-time friend Carl Hertzog, with an honorary doctorate's in literature.[21][22] The El Paso Museum of Art established its Tom Lea Gallery in 1996, and in 1997 he was honored as a Fellow in the Texas State Historical Association. President George W. Bush had Lea's painting Rio Grande displayed in the Oval Office.[23]
Lea died in El Paso on January 29, 2001, at the age of 93.
My friend, the artist Tom Lea of El Paso, Texas, captured the way I feel about our great land, a land I love. He and his wife, he said, "live on the east side of the mountain. It's the sunrise side, not the sunset side. It is the side to see the day that is coming, not to see the day that has gone."
1960: The Primal Yoke, A Novel. – Boston: Little, Brown and Company. – 1306682
1964: The Hands of Cantú. – Boston: Little, Brown and Company. – 1379124
Works about
Lea, Tom (illustrations), and the Fort Worth Art Center, (1961). – Tom Lea. – Fort Worth, Texas: Fort Worth Art Center. – 79168047
Lea, Tom (illustrations and interviews), Rebecca McDowell Craver and Adair Margo, (1995). – Tom Lea: An Oral History. – El Paso, Texas: Texas Western Press. – ISBN 978-0-87404-234-4
Lea, Tom (illustrations), and Kathleen G Hjerter, (1989). – The Art of Tom Lea. – College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press. – ISBN 978-0-89096-366-1
2003: "A Memorial Edition". – College Station: Texas A&M University Press. – ISBN 978-1-58544-282-9
Lea, Tom (illustrations), and Brendan M Greeley, (2008). – The Two Thousand Yard Stare: Tom Lea's World War II. – College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. – ISBN 978-1-60344-008-0
References
^Boggs, Johnny D. (October 2010). "Tom Lea – Art of the West". HistoryNet. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
^ a b c"Thomas Calloway Lea, Jr. - El Paso, Texas - DIGIE". City of El Paso. El Paso Museum of History. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
^"Artists: Tom Lea". Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). Retrieved May 9, 2019.
^ a bAntone, Evan Haywood. – Lea, Thomas Calloway Jr. – Handbook of Texas. – Texas State Historical Association. – Retrieved: May 8, 2019
^Lea, – Tom Lea, An Oral History, – p. 7.
^ a b c d e f g h i jMS 476: Tom Lea papers. – University Library. – University of Texas at El Paso. – Retrieved: July 4, 2008
^"Marries in Surprise Ceremony". The Decatur Daily Review. July 15, 1938. p. 14. Retrieved June 14, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Cisneros, José B." The Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). Retrieved April 29, 2019.
^Lea, – Tom Lea, An Oral History, – pp. 52, 57, 61.
^Lea, – Tom Lea, A Picture Gallery, – pp. 45–46.
^Lea, – Tom Lea, A Picture Gallery, – p.64.
^Moody, Sid. – "1,794 Americans Died For An Unneeded Pacific Island". – Associated Press. – (c/o Seattle Times). – September 11, 1994. – Retrieved: July 4, 2008
^Zeiler, Thomas W., (2004). – Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, And The End of World War II. – Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, Inc. – p. 105. ISBN 978-0-8420-2990-2
^Steinberg, Rafael. – "World War II: Island Fighting". – Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Inc. – 1998.
^Lea, – Tom Lea, A Picture Gallery: Paintings and Drawings, – p. 98.
^Lea, – Tom Lea, An Oral History, – p. 97.
^Lea, – Tom Lea, An Oral History, – pp.121–122.
^"Round 1". – TIME. – June 9, 1967. – Retrieved: July 7, 2008
^Hertzog, Jean Carl, Sr.. – Handbook of Texas. – Texas State Historical Association. – Retrieved: July 7, 2008
^"Texas Artist: Tom Lea". Vogt Auction. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
^Republican Convention 2000: "Governor Bush delivers remarks at the Republican National Convention". – CNN. – August 3, 2000. – Retrieved: July 4, 2008
^Reyes’s bill honoring El Pasoan Tom Lea passes U.S. House Archived June 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Congressman Silvestre Reyes. – July 23, 2007. – Retrieved: July 5, 2008
^Text of Legislation| Senate Passes Hutchison Resolution Honoring El Paso Artist Tom Lea Archived June 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. – Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. – July 10, 2007. – Retrieved: July 5, 2008
^Text of Legislation| Reyes’s bill honoring El Pasoan Tom Lea passes U.S. House Archived June 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Congressman Silvestre Reyes. – July 23, 2007. – Retrieved: July 5, 2008
^"Celebration of the Mural Preservation Project". – The Chicago Park District and The Chicago Conservation Center. – (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document). – Retrieved: July 7, 2008
^Tom Lea Centennial: Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Tom Lea’s Birth. – El Paso Public Library. – Retrieved: July 7, 2008
^https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=196742 The Branigan Building
1935, Retrieved: March 1, 2024
^NPS National Register Form Retrieved: March 1, 2024
^Jones, James, and Tom Lea (illustration), (1975). – "Two-Thousand-Yard Stare" Archived 2006-11-09 at the Wayback Machine. – WW II. – (c/o Military History Network). – Grosset and Dunlap. – pp. 113, 116. – ISBN 0-448-11896-3
^"Mrs. Bush's Remarks for 100th Anniversary of the West Wing Symposium". – White House Historical Association. – November 13, 2002. – Retrieved: July 5, 2008
^ a bLight from the Sky: A Tom Lea Retrospective, 1907–2001 Archived September 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. – Mid-America Arts Alliance. – (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document). – Retrieved: July 5, 2008
^"Tom Lea". New Mexico Museum of Art. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
External links
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