Ejnar Hansen Portrait of General James H. Doolittle (1940s) Oil on Canvas
Ejnar Hansen portrait of General Jimmy Doolittle, 29.5″x x 35″h in frame, Image is 24″w x 30″h.
American aviator and army general Jimmy Doolittle led an air raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
If there is a crown jewel to Jimmy Doolittle’s legendary career it would be this bombing raid he led over Japan, Doolittle’s Raid, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. It signaled for the first time Japan’s vulnerability to air attack and was a major lift to Allied morale. This terrific portrait, in which the air ace displays the three stars of a Lieutenant General, a rank to which he ascended in short order (1944), perhaps painted for a magazine cover, seems definitely to commemorate the event: one sees the island of Japan, and Mount Fuji, behind him, in flames. It’s a very arresting, even shocking image. That’s war.
Jimmy Doolittle was born December 14, 1896 in Alameda, California. With the outbreak of World War II, he returned to active duty in the Army Air Forces. On April 18, 1942, he commanded a bombing mission. Sixteen B-25s struck Tokyo and other Japanese cities. While the raid did little damage, it greatly bolstered U.S. morale and caused the Japanese to shift precious resources to air defense. Doolittle died in 1993 after a very long and illustrious life. (adapted from biography.com)
