I found very few examples of his commercial illustration work on the Internet. If there were post- World War 1 examples, I missed them.
Townsend had a good eye for details of people in movement as well as of objects such as aircraft and tanks. This meant he had a sense of structure, how things were formed. There are artists of the modern variety who have trouble depicting machines convincingly.
I think he was one of the best of the group of artists commissioned to record the war. The war images below are from 1918 when the U.S. Expeditionary Force was in action.
This seems to be from 1910 or so.
He added a cello in the background for some reason.
Nice composition, coloration, and brushwork.
Illustration. She wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" a book that was an important pre- Civil War abolitionist work.
"Tin-hat" British type helmets are not easy for some artists to draw convincingly, but Townsend could do so better, but not always perfectly.
Compare this treatment to that of "Woman Playing a Mandolin" above. The tank is a French-built Renault FT light tank.
Both sides used poisonous gas during the Great War.
From around September 1914 until March 1918, front lines were fairly stable. Much communication was handled by field telephone, with wires strung from the front trench back to headquarters. An uncle of mine enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, but the war ended before he left Camp Lewis in Washington state.
One of Germany's final desperation offensives was aimed at the Château-Thierry area. Here Townsend shows civilians heading south and an American artillery battery going north. This was a French army sector, but some American units were called in to assist the defense.
Townsend's first step in creating his war illustrations.
Renault FT light tanks in a training exercise. George S. Patton commanded a tank brigade before he was wounded.
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