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Lt.-Cmdr. Griffith Baily Coale
Lieutenant-Commander Griffith Baily Coale (1890-1950) was a mural and marine painter.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest son of a prominent family that encouraged his interest in art, he stud...view moreLieutenant-Commander Griffith Baily Coale (1890-1950) was a mural and marine painter.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest son of a prominent family that encouraged his interest in art, he studied at the Maryland Institute of Art where he served as president of the Art Student’s League for two years. He later studied mural painting in Europe for three years. Returning to Baltimore, he worked as a professional painter for seven years, and when World War I broke out, Coale worked as Marine Camoufleur for the U.S. Shipping Board from 1917 to 1918.
In 1941, sensing that war was imminent, Coale approached Admiral Chester W. Nimitz with the idea of having combat artists on board navy ships to observe operations and document what they saw in paintings. On August 8, 1941, Coale received a commission as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve working as a Combat Artist for the Office of Public Affairs. His first assignment put him on a patrol in the North Atlantic, where he witnessed the sinking of the U.S.S. Reuben James. He described and illustrated this experience in a book entitled North Atlantic Patrol. His next assignment took him to the Pacific, where after observing the wreckage from the attack on Pearl Harbor and hearing eyewitness accounts, he rendered illustrations of that disaster. He also observed troops training for the invasion of Midway and traveled to that island shortly after its recapture. This led to the publication of another book, Victory at Midway. Navy Public Affairs next sent him to the Southeast Asia Command and Ceylon, and for his final assignment at the end of the war he painted two murals (now lost) for the Naval Academy, depicting the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway.
Coale left the Navy in 1947 with the rank of commander and returned to his home in New York, where he died in 1950.view less