War artist
William Linzee Prescott already knew a lot about war when he went to Vietnam. Born in 1917 and the descendant of the Colonel Prescott who told his men to hold their fire until they saw the whites of the enemy’s eyes on Bunker Hill, he studied art at Chouinard in Los Angeles, joined the Army at the outbreak of World War II, and jumped into Normandy with the 82d Airborne. Captured and held for ten months before he escaped, Prescott documented his POW days in brisk sketches and the Normandy invasion with a mural at West Point. In 1967 he was sent to Vietnam as the first civilian painter with the Army Combat Artist Program. At the time of his death in 1981, he was planning a book of his Vietnam drawings; but work had not gone far, and Morley Safer, a correspondent who also put in time in Vietnam and who recently wrote a fine book about it, has expanded on the hastily penciled identifications the artist left behind on his watercolors. Safer believes that Prescott’s vibrant paintings show that war with an urgency and an intimacy that the camera often misses.
On June 6, 1944, a young Pvt. William Linzee Prescott jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division onto the beach in Normandy, France. He also participated in an attack that would eventually be transformed into paintings which would cement his modest fame. Fifty-six years after the battle that began the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany, Prescott's paratrooper's vision of D-Day endures in the form of two enormous murals at the West Point Museum.
After landing in Normandy and participating in one major battle, Prescott was quickly captured, according to friend, fellow veteran and longtime Tuxedo Park resident Alex Salm. "He and a buddy found a deserted farm in the south of France and lit a fire," Salm recounted over breakfast at the Orange Top Restaurant on Route 17, where Prescott's name still registers with diners. "Linzee was always very amusing," Salm recalled. "I said to him, 'Jesus, how stupid were you to get captured going into a house at night and go and light a fire? No wonder the German's captured you.' "
"Well I was cold," was the answer Salm received. "Me and my buddy cooked – and then we found some wine in the cellar." But the imprisoned artist didn't suffer much at the hands of the Germans, remembered his friends. In fact, he sketched his way into good treatment.
As the story goes, Prescott sketched life in prison camp. The German commander caught sight of the sketches and requested a portrait. Pleased with the results, the commander spread the news, and officers at other camps commissioned portraits by arranging Prescott's transfer.
 |
| W Linzee Prescott during II World War |
After landing in Normandy and participating in one major battle, Prescott was quickly captured, according to friend, fellow veteran and longtime Tuxedo Park resident Alex Salm. "He and a buddy found a deserted farm in the south of France and lit a fire," Salm recounted over breakfast at the Orange Top Restaurant on Route 17, where Prescott's name still registers with diners. "Linzee was always very amusing," Salm recalled. "I said to him, 'Jesus, how stupid were you to get captured going into a house at night and go and light a fire? No wonder the German's captured you.' "
"Well I was cold," was the answer Salm received. "Me and my buddy cooked – and then we found some wine in the cellar." But the imprisoned artist didn't suffer much at the hands of the Germans, remembered his friends. In fact, he sketched his way into good treatment.
As the story goes, Prescott sketched life in prison camp. The German commander caught sight of the sketches and requested a portrait. Pleased with the results, the commander spread the news, and officers at other camps commissioned portraits by arranging Prescott's transfer.
Check out all war art posts from William Linzee Prescott click here >
