Henry Reuterdahl – Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

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REUTERDAHL, NOTED NAVAL ARTIST, DEAD
Buried in Arlington After a Military Funeral
Died in Hospital for Insane
Was Beloved in Navy

His Works Adorn Many Ships – Was a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserves

WASHNGTON, December 23, 1925 – Lieutenant Commander Henry Reuterdahl, United States naval Reserve Force, well-known naval artist and marine colorist, died at the St. Elizabeth’s Government Hospital for the Insane on Sunday night and was buried privately today in Arlington National Cemetery, where repose many of the American Navy officers with whom he was intimately associated.  Funeral services with military honors were held yesterday.  He had been a patient in the hospital since September.  His home was in Weehawken, New Jersey.

The name Reuterdahl was like a household word in the American Navy because of the artist’s numerous contributions to its pictorial history and the many friendships had had formed with officers while aboard ship making marine pictures or painting mural decorations on the bulkheads of the officers’ mess rooms.  He had decorated the ward rooms of many of the ward rooms of American battleships and destroyers, and for the Delaware, since scrapped, had painted a scene picturing that battleship with her guns in action.  It was one of the most notable of his wardroom decorations.

The artist was born in Malmo, Sweden, in 1871, and came to this country as a boy.  During the Spanish-American War and the first part of the World War, he served as a correspondent.  His art is represented at the Naval Academy by ten naval paintings presented to the Navy by the late George von L. Meyer, former Secretary.  Naval paintings in the Navy Department in Washington, the National Museum in Washington, the Naval War College at Newport and the Toledo Museum are also from his brush.

He painted marine murals for Vincent Astor’s yacht Noma, Harold S. Vanderbilt’s schooner yacht Vagrant, and the yacht Viking, owned by George D. Baker, Jr.  For the Missouri State Capitol he painted the naval mural “We Are Ready Now.”

In 1917 he was appointed a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve Force and the next year promoted to Lieutenant Commander, retiring in 1921.  During the World War Mr. Reuterdahl contributed with his brush huge naval paintings for the campaign to float Liberty Bonds, one of which he painted on a large signboard erected in front of the State, War and Navy Building here and another on Forty-second Street, near Fifth Avenue, in New York.

REUTERDAHL, HENRY

  • LT CMDR USNRF RETD
  • DATE OF DEATH: 12/21/1925
  • BURIED AT: SECTION D  SITE 3010
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

REUTERDAHL, PAULIEN S W/O HENRY

  • DATE OF DEATH: 02/12/1926
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 4 W  SITE 3010
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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