"The Price" by LIFE Magazine artist Tom Lea is the most shocking painting that I have found from World War II. It is magnificent in its brutality. This painting offers no glorification of the war that the artist witnessed first hand; on the contrary, it shows a very young man struggling through waves, wounded, and with his own blood splattered on his face. Tom Lea was able to capture the horrific brutality of the war by using the shock value so often utilized by his contemporaries in their less realistic depictions. The tones are subdued, emphasizing the vibrant red that coats the soldier's arm and face. The painting is at once a commemoration and an expose of the slaughter that, at time it which it was created, remained hidden from the public eye.
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