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May 29, 1944 – May 29, 2024
Today marks the 80th anniversary of Gregor Duncan’s passing near Anzio, when the Jeep his was traveling in was struck by a German 88 shell. Duncan and Sgt. Jack Raymond were sent to Anzio, to gather material for a new series of drawings on the former beachhead. Raymond survived, but Duncan died due to injuries suffered from shell fragments. Please take a moment to think about Gregor Duncan, and all that might have been had he not been killed. Bill Mauldin summed up Duncan’s death well in his book, The Brass Ring: “I’ve lost friends who were ordinary people and just wanted to live and raise a family and pay…
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New Gregor Duncan Image!
I’m always happy to be able to run across a previously unknown (to me!) Gregor Duncan illustration. In this case it’s a nice early program cover illustration, for a collegiate football game between Stanford and Santa Clara. One thing you’ll notice right away is the date: September 29, 1934. And the piece seems to fit that period of Duncan’s work. But then you notice his signature and date of 1932 and you realize that the drawing is one that he already had, unless Stanford used the same image a number of times. Regardless of when the piece was drawn and published, it’s a lovely and dynamic example of figure drawing.…
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In The Beginning There was Sad Sack
Through the course of my research, I learned of Duncan’s widow, Janice Duncan Goodhue, and how she had met him in Naples, Italy just weeks before he was killed in action. I found that Janice had wound up in Nevada, where she had been interviewed for a repository of audio recollections by WWII veterans. She was last listed as living in Reno, so I decided to see if she was still with us. She was indeed! Janice was in her mid-90s and sharper than most tacks. We exchanged a few letters and chatted on the phone a couple of times. At this point, I was invested enough in my research…
The Art and Life of Gregor Duncan