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WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2002 – At 36, Rob Rose probably could have avoided military service in World War II. But after Pearl Harbor the California artist felt compelled to enlist in the Army.
Three years later, with a commission and an assignment to the Pentagon, he was again compelled this time to paint the view from his office in that newly built edifice. During the war, Rose served as the War Department's chief art director. He was responsible for developing standards for official publications, such as manuals, posters, training literature, even reports to and from Gens. George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower. "He was inspired to paint (this picture) from the very pride of being in the Pentagon and from the view of the capital in Washington, D.C.," said Rose's current agent, Lynda Morley-Mott. Fifty-six years later, scenes on his television of the Pentagon in flames after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks made Rose want to find some way to reach out to the men and women who acted so heroically in his old stomping grounds. Today, Morley-Mott at Rose's behest presented Pentagon officials a print of that long-ago view from the nation's military heart, a painting entitled, "WWII View From The Pentagon." Rose also donated a print of another of his works from the period, a painting he called "Phoenix Eagle." Morley-Mott explained during a small Pentagon ceremony that Rose felt this painting is particularly appropriate since the rebuilding of the Pentagon after the terrorist attack has been dubbed the Phoenix Project. "It's wonderful to be here under these circumstances," Morley-Mott said. "What an impressive thing to see, the Pentagon rebuilt so fast." DoD officials eventually hope to display the Rose prints in the Pentagon.
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