908
Belleau Wood
FES Title: Belleau Wood
Alternate Titles:
Date: 01/24/1919
Size: 30″H x 50″W
Medium: oil_single-prime-canvas
Type: illustration
Published: “Souvenir Pictures of the Great War.” The Ladies Home Journal, April 1919: 16.
caption: Belleau Wood: Where the Marines Stopped the Kaiser on his Way to Paris

Clark, S.J. Duncan, History’s Greatest War, c.1919: 128.

Austerman, Wayne R. “Rifle With Rival.” Military History, October 1992: 26.
caption: Armed with M-1903 rifles, U.S. Marines engage German troops in Belleau Wood, by Frank Schoonover. Even as late as the Korean War, many Marines were loathe to give up their beloved Springfields.

Dixon, Mark E. “Retrospect: Wading in Cold Water.” Main Line Today, August 2003: 28.
caption: Raw Emotion: Pyle painter of “The Nation Maker”, inspired students like Frank Schoonover to portray the intensity of feeling in illustrations such as “Belleau Wood” from World War I. The young painters revered the experience.

The National Museum of the Marine Corps: A Tribute to All Marine Corps – Past, Present, and Future. Tampa, FL: Faircount Publication, 2006: 42.
caption: Army historian Gen. S.L.A. Marshall called the Marine Brigade in World War I “without a doubt the most aggressive body of diehards on the Western Front,” a reputation paid for in blood and sacrifice. Belleau Wood by Frank Earle Schoonover

The National Museum of the Marine Corps. Lawrenceberg, IN: The Creative Company, 2006: 23.
caption: Belleau Wood by Frank Earle Schoonover

Grow, Charles and Joan Thomas. “Triangle, Virginia: National Museum of the Marine Corps.” American Art Review, November-December 2006: 140.
caption: Frank Earle Schoonover, Belleau Wood.
Inscription: lr: Frank E. Schoonover / -19
Annotations:
Exhibitions:
Comments: index; edit
Commentary: “History will record it
[Battle of Belleau Wood] as one of the most critical moments of the war. So sure were the boches [German forces] that nothing stood between them and Paris that they marched along the roads singing. They had yet to meet the fury of the charge of the 5th and 6th American Marines! The boches, bewildered and infuriated by the unexpected resistance fought desperately but – they did not pass!” (The Ladies Home Journal, 16.)
Schoonover portrayed the intensity of this 1918 battle with each Marine reflecting an attitude of victory. Permanently captured in the painting, this battle continues to inspire Marines. (interview, Charles Grow, Curator, and Joan C. Thomas, Assistant Curator, National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia, September 13, 2007)
For further commentary, see #886.
Provenance: National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia
Current Owner: