Art
Collection 
Art
Collection Since the first day of World War II,
the American public has had occasion to read a good deal about
the Marine Corps and to see Marines in action as portrayed by
the camera. But no insight thus afforded can compare with that
offered by the work by Kerr Eby.
For long months this distinguished artist, no stranger to war,
shared the dangerous life of the Marines in the Pacific. He landed
with us at Tarawa, and he went from that terrible battleground
to live with Marines fighting in the jungle warfare of Bougainville.
He slept on the hard coral, he slogged through the jungle mud,
he shared the minor pleasures and the major discomforts of the
Marines at war, the good hot cup of coffee at the end of thirsty
hours, the threat of enemy bombs and shells and bullets near him.
Like many a Marine, he fell prey to tropical ills: one of his
weeks in Bougainville was spent in a hospital.
Kerr Eby was with the Marines long enough to get the feeling of
their war. With rapid sketches on the spot, whether in jungle
skirmish or at beachhead landing or just living between battles,
he used his art to capture that feeling and make it visible to
all. It is small wonder, and yet it is the eternal miracle of
art, that his finished paintings and drawings are so richly successful.
They have caught the dramatic intensity and spirit of men at war,
the feeling of men in battle, the sludging through the jungle
and the terrible murky heat, the charge on the pillbox, the savagery,
the terror, the exhaustion of battle.
Kerr Eby has made a great contribution. The Marine Corps and the
public are in his debt. If he has somewhere expressed a high opinion
of the Marines, let us for our part make public declaration that
it is mutual, both for the life he lived among us and for the
work here presented.
By Major General Julian C. Smith, USMC, who commanded the amphibious
assault at Tarawa
The captions are by the artist.
Down
the Net
Kerr Eby #10
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbott Laboratories
88-159-CT
Like a flowing stream, Marines come over the side of the transport for the attack of Tarawa.
The
Wave Breaks On the Reef
Kerr
Eby #2
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CL
Jarred to a halt by a hidden reef, an assault boat is abandoned
by a unit of Marines. Doomed to near-extinction by a storm of
enemy fire, long since trained on this objective, the group pushes
forward to a man into the hindering water, into the teeth of the
deadly storm.
Bullets
and Barbed Wire
Kerr
Eby #4
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CN
Both constituted tremendous barriers to victory in the bloody battle for Tarawa; but this Marine, rifle swung grimly in one hand, typifies the resurgent spirit of the thinned but indomitable ranks of the conquerors of the Gilberts. Past the brutal wire on which hung the bodies of his comrades, the tattered Marine presses on toward the beach and the redoubts of the hated enemy.
D-Day
On Tarawa
Kerr
Eby #5
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CO
Wading through a leaden surf under an overcast sky, wave on wave
of U.S. Marines doggedly brave a deadly sheet of fire to secure
a beachhead on Tarawa in the Gilberts on November 20 1943. Overhead,
Navy dive bombers scream down through a blanket of black smoke
to blast at the Japanese, entrenched in nearly invulnerable pillboxes.
The
Hard Road to Triumph
Kerr
Eby #1
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CK
Bodies angled forward, grim Marines press forward against the
entrenched Japanese of Tarawa in the Gilberts in November 1943.
In the background, an armored tractor lumbers forward with them
prodding the enemy defenses with fingers of fire.
March Macabre
Kerr
Eby #20
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-DD
Shuffling slowly across blood soaked sand, Marines bear a wounded
comrade back to the first aid station on embattled Tarawa, their
tautened muscles constrained to gentleness. With painful care
they hoist the slumped body of the desperately wounded man over
the sea wall on the historic battleground.
Marines
Fall Forward
Kerr
Eby #3
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-CM
The road to victory in the Pacific is littered with the bodies
of gallant fighting men. Like this Marine (right center) who fell
in the assault on a Tarawa pillbox, the honored dead fell forward,
facing the foe, their feet driving to the last ebb of strength
to carry on to the objective.
Ebb
Tide, Tarawa
Kerr
Eby #33
Charcoal, 1944
Gift of Abbot Laboratories
88-159-DQ
The attack was at flood tide. When the sea went out over the reef,
this and much besides was left. In two wars, this I think is the
most frightful thing I have seen, perhaps because of its isolation
on the reef.
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Collection Branch01 August 2001