Discover the life of Norman Wilkinson, the maritime painter who revolutionized naval camouflage with his innovative Dazzle Painting technique during WWI.
Norman Wilkinson was a maritime painter.
He had all the ships repainted.
Numerous memoirs and research works have been published that recount the Gallipoli Campaign. There are also hundreds of photographs related to the Gallipoli battles. Painters have created charcoal, watercolor, and oil paintings inspired by these photographs. Gallipoli has become an unforgettable war memory known by the name 'Dardanelles' and has maintained its impact of honor, pride, and heartbreak since World War I.
In contrast to the photographers who witnessed these battle scenes, painter and reserve officer Norman Wilkinson reflected the battle scenes he witnessed in his paintings and published them in his work that contains his memories. He had no thought in mind as a naval reserve officer of watching British soldiers and ships storming ashore from a support vessel in the Saroz Bay. However, he was conscripted and came to know the ugly face of war as a naval reserve officer. He was so affected by the surface ships becoming prey to German submarines that he created a painting technique that would mislead submarines into seeing surface ships. This was called 'Dazzle Ships,' and until radar was discovered and began to be used on ships, thousands of vessels, whether warships or merchant ships, were painted in bizarre shapes and colors.
The artist's watercolor paintings and charcoal sketches on the Gallipoli theme are part of the collection at the Imperial War Museum in London.
His observations from the sea convey only the landing scene of the horrific tragedies of the Gallipoli Campaign. Norman L. Wilkinson was born on November 24, 1878, in Cambridge, England, and passed away at the age of 92 on May 31, 1971.
He was a renowned painter, famous primarily for his oil paintings, watercolors, and colored pencil works. His most significant characteristic was being the painter of the seas and ships. He also painted very attractive posters that reflected his personality.
During World War I, he created the art of camouflage to prevent warships from being easy targets. The technique known as 'Dazzle Painting' or 'Dazzle Camouflage,' which is recorded in history as the 'Dazzle Painting Technique,' is an invention of Norman Wilkinson and is still used today as a camouflage technique in military vehicles worldwide. During his education years, he attended Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire and was part of the choir at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. His inclination towards art and initial training developed thanks to the Portsmouth and Cornwall and Southsea Art Schools, where he would later work as an art teacher.
He gained new observations and experiences in the studio of marine painter Louis Grier. At the age of 21, following his training in academic drawing in Paris, the seas and ships gradually became his main area of work. His first works were published in Illustrated London News magazines, and in the following years, he continued to work for this magazine. Throughout his life, he became a prolific poster artist painting landscapes for the London and North Western Railway and the London Midland and Scottish Railway.
He was in love with traveling by sea and made many trips to Spain, Germany, Italy, Malta, Greece, Aden, the Bahamas, the United States, Canada, and Brazil by sea and train.
Starting in June 1915, he served as a Royal Volunteer Reserve Officer of the British Royal Navy on submarine patrol and surveillance duties in the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Dardanelles, and Gibraltar. In early 1917, he took on a role on a mine-sweeping ship at HMNB Devonport.
German submarines had become capable of successfully torpedoing British merchant ship convoys and warships, sometimes sinking eight ships in a single day. While Norman Wilkinson sought opportunities for enemy submarines to misidentify surface ships as targets, he realized that the concealment of surface ships was only possible for a time if they emitted thick smoke from their funnels. Otherwise, he saw that hiding was impossible and sought answers to the question, 'Is it possible to make a surface ship difficult to detect or even confuse when viewed from a periscope?' The answer he found was to paint ships in surprising designs and colors. He presented his plans and designs for his initial experiments to the British Admiralty, the senior authority of the British Navy, and with the positive response he received, he was appointed to the camouflage unit responsible for naval vessels in the studios established within the Royal Academy of Arts.
He had nearly two dozen painters and students working under him. In these studies, they astonishingly changed the painting models of ships using the Dazzle Painting technique, and they evaluated these models with a periscope set up in the studio. Thus, all ships and merchant vessels of the British Navy were painted in surprising colors and shapes known as 'Dazzle Painting,' and the impact of the astonishing Dazzle painting technique he created spread as far as the USA. In early 1918, he was invited to Washington for the US Navy and appointed as a consultant. Here, he served as a consultant in a similar camouflage unit led by Lloyd A. Jones, Everett Warner, and Harold Van Buskirk.
When World War II broke out, Norman Wilkinson was again appointed as a consultant to the camouflage department of the Royal Air Force. A significant portion of the artist's paintings, who passed away in 1971, is exhibited at the Imperial War Museum and the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich, as well as in private collections.
In one of his works, Norman Wilkinson also recounts the fate of the Australian and New Zealand ANZAC soldiers. Indeed, the ANZACs, who came from across continents to fight on the Gallipoli Peninsula, are commemorated with increasing excitement each year by Australians and New Zealanders.
In memoirs related to the Gallipoli Campaign or other documentary works, if the author is a politician, they tend to be persistent and their statements are often biased. If they are a soldier, they define the war in blood. In both cases, there are only wars fought to achieve victory. However, if the person witnessing the battle scenes is a painter, it may be surprising that they convey some tragic moments, which could end in death, with their artistic personality, even if it is in a very painful comedic style.
Norman Wilkinson respectfully notes the armed struggle not only of the soldiers but also of the men and women villagers to protect their homeland. He expresses the human side by stating, 'While they were trying to protect their homeland, we had come to invade their lands.'
He conveys a truth to the extent of saying, 'There can be no other nation than the Turks, who love their homeland so much in those lands,' using the word 'Allah' in Turkish.
During the peaceful years of his life, he continued to create works related to the sea.
Source: SeaNews Türkiye
