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Tom Lea: The Creator of the "That Two-Thousand-Yard Stare"


Who was the creator of the "That Two-Thousand-Yard Stare"? Why is it called the "That Two Thousand Yard Stare"?

A tattered marine looking at the distance wearing a green helmet.
Tom Lea, (1944) That 2,000 Yard Stare [Oil on canvas] 36½ X 28½ Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Soldiers in helmets rest in a barren landscape with scattered trees. One soldier looks at the camera, conveying a somber mood. Black and white.
Tom at Peleliu, Sept. 1944

Tom Lea: WWII Artist Correspondent


Born in El Paso, Texas, United States, Tom Lea was one of the most iconic Southwest artists of the 20th Century.


From 1941 to 1946, Tom Lea was a War Artist correspondent for LIFE magazine, traveling over 100,000 miles to theaters of war where American forces were involved, including the North Atlantic, the South Pacific aboard the USS Hornet … a trip to China where he met Theodore H. White, and the landing of the Seventh Marines on






How was the "That Two-Thousand-Yard Stare" created?


In 1944, during the battle of Peleliu (one of the bloodiest battles of WWII), Lea was serving as an artist correspondent for Life Magazine. During this time, Lea recalls the moment in which he saw the marine portrayed in the " Two Thousand-Yard-Stare" the following :


Soldier with intense gaze in helmet, trees and tanks in background. Text reads: "Down from Bloody Nose. Too Late. He’s Finished, Washed Up, Gone."
The painting was originally a sketch titled "Down from Bloody Nose Too Late." He's Finished, Washed up, Gone. Tom Lea. Down from BLOODY NOSE Too Late - He's Finished Washed, 1944

“As we passed sick bay, still in the shellhole, it was crowded with wounded, and somehow hushed in the evening light. I noticed a tattered marine standing quietly by a corpsman, staring stiffly at nothing. His mind had crumbled in battle, his jaws hung, and his eyes were like two black empty holes in his head. Down by the beach again, we walked silently as we passed the long line of dead marines under the tarpaulins ” -Tom Lea, Peleliu Landing, 34


Why is it called "That Two-Thousand-Yard Stare"?


The thousand-yard stare  (a.k.a. Two-Thousand-Yard stare) is an unfocused gaze from dissociation due to stress or trauma. Initially, a term used for war combatants and post-traumatic stress, it now also describes those under any stress or with specific mental health issues. Over time, Marines began calling it "That Two-thousand-Yard Stare." The painting, to date, is closely related to Active-Duty soldiers and veterans of war. The painting was declared a national symbol of PTSD and represents the psychological impact of combat.



Lea's Experience as an Artist Correspondent



" The next four years were a huge break from work in my cherished corner of the homeland.

I became, for deeply felt reasons, an eyewitness reporter, in drawings and paintings, of men and their machines waging a war worldwide. I want to make it clear that I did not report hearsay; I did not imagine, or fake, or improvise; I did not cuddle up with personal emotion, moral notion, or political opinion about War with a capital-W. I reported what I saw with my own two eyes, wide open, in pictures.


​Doing it that way I traveled more than a hundred thousand miles outside the United States, north and south of the Equator, east and west of the International Date Line, in lights and shadows as shaky as the Aurora weaving mysteries over the empty Ice Cap of Greenland, or a shine of parachute flare bringing night-time flash of gunfire from black jungle on a coral island.


In those years, 1941-1945, I saw, and I drew, and I painted, many kinds of things, many men, in many situations, in many places.

To this day, you see a man here who is proud- exceedingly proud – that he went out and saw it, and came back home bringing a legible, trustworthy record of what he saw. And to this day, you see a man here who is grateful- humbly grateful – that he got home with his hide intact." - Tom Lea


The Tom Lea Guide:


See the beauty of the world like never before through Tom Lea’s eyes! Explore our Bloomberg Connects digital guide containing exhibits, artwork, stories, and exclusive content inspired by one of the most iconic Southwest artists of the 20th century.



Paintings from first to last:

  1. Tom Lea. (1944) That 2,000 Yard Stare [Oil on canvas] 36½ X 28½ Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

  2.  Tom Lea. (1944) Down from BLOODY NOSE Too Late - He's Finished Washed.

  3. Tom Lea. (1944) Killing [Oil on canvas] 20½ X 26½. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Copyright Lea Weeks.

  4. Tom Lea. (1944). Counterattack Coming. Oil on canvas, 36½ X 28½. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

  5. Tom Lea. (1944). Fighter In The Sky. Oil on Canvas, 14¼ X 23¼. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

  6. Tom Lea. (1944). Sickbay in a Shellhole. Oil on canvasboard, 27 X 32. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

  7. Tom Lea. (1944). Going In. Oil on canvas, 22½ X 42¼. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

  8. Tom Lea. (1944). The Price. 36½ X 28½. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir.

  9. Tom Lea. (1944). Sinking of the Wasp. Oil on canvasboard, 22¼ X 40½. Life Collection of Art WWII, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.





 
 
 

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