Werner Voss' Last Fight by Various Artists

[Pete Hill]

The famous dogfight in 1917 in which the great German ace Werner Voss met his unfortunate demise has been arguably the best-remembered aerial action from the First World war with the possible exception of the death of Von Richtofen.
Not surprisingly, many aviation artists who depict scenes from the Great War have tackled this topic and it is very interesting to see the different interpretations. Just as many aviation painters who deal with WW2 have churned out various versions of the Dambusters Raid, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo & the climax of the Battle of Britain, there have been a number of versions of the Voss versus 56 Squadron dogfight.



English painter Michael Turner has painted his version of the action, using his technique of rendering acrylics in a very painterly, confident manner. Using dashing, squared-off, broader brushstrokes, Turner likes to convey speed, movement & action in his work.
Turner is using the ‘close-up’ compositional device with the outward edges of the aircraft cut-off by the picture’s boundary. When handled well, this device is ideal for conveying both a sense of high drama and action and a sense of the human element as the viewer is close enough to see the men that are flying these machines. A disadvantage of this device is that the picture’s composition can be excessively cluttered and confined, detracting from the sense of movement that should be present.
Turner, in my view, has made the right choice with this type of composition and has pulled it off admirably. The action in question was a furious, prolonged one fought by highly skilled and very determined men, each side trying to out-fly the other, searching for that moment of weakness to become apparent in the enemy’s tactics and skills.
The moment in this picture, in which Voss and an SE5 (McCudden or Rhys-Davids?) pass by each other, going in the opposite direction, shows the fury and the close-quarters of the action. The SE5 is already turning inwards, the pilot determinedly trying to once again get Voss’ elusive Fokker into his gunsights, if only for a second.
The two pilots are facing each other, their eyes meeting for a fraction of a second. In the hands of some painters, this might become melodramatic or even corny but here it works as drama.
The background is rendered broadly and simply with a few tones and colours to suggest the overall sky and earth. Turner rarely allows more than the barest of details to be given to the background of his aviation works as he prefers attention to be focussed on the machines. To clutter the background with more detail would merely detract from the sense of movement and speed. Even in the planes themselves, Turner gives them their due attention but in a broader sense when compared to many aviation artists who carefully render every rivet, every nut and bolt.
The dark-olive greens of Voss’ Triplane and the middle-greens of the SE5 give the work a strong unity of colour. Turner has given the Fokker an olive engine cowling although there is considerable disagreement as to whether it was olive or yellow.
According to accounts I have read, the real-life action was fought in the late afternoon, close to dusk. But the broad, pale sky of Turner’s work does not give that feeling and it appears in this painting that the action could have taken place at any time of day, early morning, midday or early afternoon.
Turner’s confident brushwork is deceptive. I have read an account of his working process and he has been known to paint sections of, or entire works, a number of times before being satisfied. Working on artist’s board, he wipes whole sections clean (an advantage of using acrylic) and starts again. As some-one said, “It takes a lot of hard work to make something look easy!”



This piece is by the great American artist James Dietz. His approach to the topic is very different but just as successful.
Interestingly, it is relatively rare for Dietz to produce an aviation piece that just focuses on aircraft. Usually, people dominate proceedings.
This work has Voss coming towards the viewer with three SE5s in hot pursuit. The view is from slightly above the action and the background is dominated by a darkened ground and cloudscape.
Dietz has captured the fierceness of the action and he conveys very well the sense of desperation and determination of the men involved. All three SE5s are turned away at a different angle to Voss’ machine, the nearest Englishman just unable to bring his guns to bear on the elusive Triplane that always seems able to turn just that little bit tighter.
Unlike Turner’s work, the action takes place in the late afternoon with dusk rapidly approaching. The viewer can almost feel the Autumn air getting steadily chillier as the shadows lengthen and the scattered blue-grey clouds cluster over a darkening earth. Voss’ Fokker’s Olive-Green finish is rendered a yellowish hue by the sunlight, as are the pursuing SE5s, giving a strong unity of colour to the scene. The darkened background allows the aircraft to stand out strongly and this, combined with the dramatically dark shadows on the aircraft themselves, gives the composition a dramatic feel and a good sense of depth and perspective.
Unlike Turner, Dietz gives equal attention to all parts of the picture, not just the main subjects. Every part of the landscape and cloudscape is carefully detailed, as are all the aircraft. There can be pitfalls of such an approach. Namely, too much detail can overly clutter a composition, the viewer’s attention can be drawn away from the main action and such an approach can sometimes become merely a self-indulgent exercise in showing off technical skill.
In my opinion, Dietz has avoided these traps. The detail here is not excessive and is instead pleasurable to explore. Nor does it detract from the main action or the drama of the moment.
Like Turner, Dietz has chosen to render Voss’ Fokker’s engine cowling Olive-Green.

More to come. Pete.

[Pete Hill]

Part 2.



This fine work, by Ivan Berryman, uses a masterful compositional technique, using light & dark and colour to achieve pictorial balance.
Like Turner’s piece, Berryman has narrowed the focus onto just two machines in the action. The way he has achieved compositional balance is excellently handled.
The picture is divided by the diagonal line of the darkened cloud formation on the right side of the picture with the edge of the clouds sloping to the left. The lighter cloudscape on the left is divided into two bands, both edges sloping to the right to counter-act the darkened clouds.
Against this, Voss’ Fokker has its wingspan tilted to the right whilst the SE5 behind it has its wings tilted to the left. All these lines draw the viewer’s eye around the picture, creating a balanced design.
Berryman also skilfully uses contrasts of colour and tone. The bright-yellow engine cowling of the Fokker is positioned over the darker clouds so it acts as a strong contrast whilst the olive-green fuselage and darkened undersides of the wings are positioned over the lighter clouds, again creating more contrast and balance.
The SE5 is banking so its wingspan is almost parallel to the edge of the darker cloudscape and it also neatly bridges the two bands of lighter clouds. To give a sense of distance, we have a narrow band of blue sky in the upper left of the picture, where we can get a glimpse of some of the other SE5s of McCudden’s flight. But they are mere specks, almost as if they are only spectactors to this duel.
Berryman has chosen to give Voss’ triplane a bright-yellow engine cowling.



US artist Stan Stokes has also painted this event and he takes a different approach. Here the viewpoint is from below, the aircraft starkly positioned against a clear sky with higher wispy clouds. It could be any time of day, like Turner’s piece.
Stokes paints with a very smooth, precise, almost glassy technique. His aviation works have an almost Surreal ‘Stillness’ to them as if the aircraft are frozen in time, suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating like models dangling on fishing line from a ceiling.
Stokes loves to celebrate the sheer visual beauty of his subjects, even the military scenes and loves to render the precise detail and glorious colour, rather than focus on speed and movement like Turner.
Rather than using a detailed background like Berryman and Dietz, Stokes has positioned his aircraft against a starkly bright-lit sky. He has well-captured the swirling pattern of the dogfight as the planes turn and turn again as they try to bring each other into their gunsights.
The biggest strength of the work is its unity of colour. Stokes has restricted himself to a cooler palette of blues, bluish greens and blue-greys with only a few small points of warm tones to tie it together. This both unifies the composition and also conveys the light of the open air.
Stokes has also given the Fokker a yellow cowling.
Forum members S. Anderson and Russell Smith have excellent works on the Voss dogfight in the Forum Gallery. I cannot copy their pieces to bring up here but I will talk about them in my next post.
Cheers, Pete.
I welcome your comments and thoughts!
PS, I am pretty sure that American painter Keith Ferris did a painting on the Voss dogfight. I think it was illustrated in Aviation History magazine some years ago but couldn’t find it on the Net. Can anyone help?

[Russell Smith]

Here's one for you Pete.

Last Dance of the Hussar

by Me
(Fortunately my style has matured a bit since ti did this one.)


Here is, BY FAR, the best depiction of this event:

The Sun Sets on Werner Voss
by the great Wilson Hurley


I know Keith's piece you're talking about. It isn't a depiction of the dogfight, simply an aircraft portrait of 103/17. Can't find it in my files, though.

russ

[Bettors Pub]

I've been told that my taste is in my mouth but I think this discussion would be remiss without Barry Weekley's fine rendition which is also the cover of "Who Got Who".

http://www.barryweekleyart.com/aviat...Grub%20St).jpg

Sorry admin if hotlink is not allowed

[tcrean7828]

Mates,
I see we are talking about my favorite subject again. Paint, watercolor, computer, and pencil drawings of Werner Voss' Last dogfight.

I am delighted that someone woke me up, to remind me to try and get permission to include these fantastic works of art in my book.

1. 'The Last Flight of Werner Voss' by Michael Turner

2. 'Dual at Odds' by James Dietz

3. 'Magnificent Courage' by Stan Stokes

4. 'Last Dance of the Hussar' by Russell Smith

5. 'The Sun Sets on Werner Voss' by Wilson Hurley

6. ‘Who Downed Who’ by Barry Weekley

7. '???' by Ivan Berryman

How about if we add the following to the list already presented.

8. ‘The Voss Finale’ by Darby Perrin

9. Eduard model 'Fokker F.I' by Hawkeye Designs

10. 'Werner Voss Stalks His Prey' by Keith Ferris

11. 'Aces High' by Steve Anderson

12. 'Voss Last Dogfight' by R. E. Henderson

13. 'Voss last' by Sreiko Bradic

14. 'Death of an Ace' by George Evans

15. ‘Fokker F.I 103/17 WW1 German Fighter 1:32 scale’ by Roden

16. ‘Seven against One’ by Peter Hill

17. 'F.I 103/17 last flight' by Handrille. (Pencil drawing)

18. 'Voss' Combat' by English School (Pencil drawing)

Any idea on how to contact some of these artists, so that I might get their permission (to include their hard earned labors of love). I would very much like to include them within a special section of my upcoming Book.

Clues as to how to go about it, are always welcome.

ttfn

tcrean7828

tom

P.M. me if you are one of the artists that have composed these remarkable items.

[Pete Hill]

Hi, Tom.
Well, I can solve one part of your problem. I'm the Pete Hill who did 'Seven Against One' and its fine with me if you want to use it, no problems.
Thanks for the other titles, including some I didn't know about, so cheers!
Pete

[Pete Hill]

Hi Russell,
thanks very much for posting your fine painting "Last flight of the Hussar". Yes, your style has matured since then but nonetheless, I think this is an excellent painting. I like the fact that you have got the time of day right and have used darkened tones to suggest the approach of dusk. Your brushwork is also more textured and a bit more 'painterly' than your recent work, it seems to me. However, I can see how your recent work is also much more confident, mature and more sophisticated, something that can only come with experience, practice and sheer hard slog (believe me I know). I wish I had kept my first effort, painted back in 1991 when I was 21 of a pair of Fokker Eindeckers so I could show you how very primitive my early stuff was!
So was the engine cowling of the Fokker yellow? When I painted 'Seven Against One', I painted it olive-green but since then, I have some people inform me it should be yellow, others say that I got it right. So far, its about 50/50. I trust your research skills more than my own so I am guessing yellow is right?
Thanks heaps for the beautiful work by Wilson Hurley, that is amazing. I must track down some more of his stuff.
Cheers, Pete

[tengew]

the jury is still out on the color of the cowl from the film i have seen looks green but i could be wrong

[Russell Smith]

Originally Posted by Pete Hill

So was the engine cowling of the Fokker yellow? When I painted 'Seven Against One', I painted it olive-green but since then, I have some people inform me it should be yellow, others say that I got it right. So far, its about 50/50. I trust your research skills more than my own so I am guessing yellow is right?

Shmokes! I dunno...when I painted it I was convinced it was yellow. These days i lean more towards green. Who knows? one day I may be back at yellow again.

Russ

[shackleton]

I would just like to say how much I have enjoyed reading this thread. I've always enjoyed looking at pictures of vintage aircraft but the critiques from established artists and their insights are fascinating to non-artists. Please keep adding to this thread.