No Sake Tonight by John Shaw
Main Edition Giclée Print on satin finish archival paper
Image size: 30 in x 16.25 in | Overall size: 34 in x 22 in
Signed by the artist
Professional framing available upon request. All framing materials are archival and conservation-grade to ensure long-term preservation. Please contact us for options and pricing.
World War II was a time unlike any other in the history of aerial warfare, and a time of extraordinary fighter aces. By the end of the war in 1945, many of these brave young men had become household names across America, most of them retaining that fame for decades to come. A number of these great pilots lost their lives toward the end of the war either in combat, training accidents stateside, or for other unrelated reasons. Consequently, they are not as generally well-known. Such is the case of the pilot featured in this painting. The P-38 Lightning T’Rigor Mortis was flown by one of the 475th’s great aces, Frank Lent. This scene depicts Lent’s last mission, in which he scored an aerial victory against a Ki-43 ‘Oscar’ over New Guinea, in the last of his P-38 mounts, T-Rigor Mortis III.
The politically incorrect title for this scene was derived from another unknown P-38 pilot, who scored a hit on his opponent, and was heard over his throat microphone shouting a rush of adrenaline, “No saké tonight!” This is Shaw’s second scene saluting the legendary 475th Fighter Group (“Satan’s Angels”), the first being Pacific Summer, his first WWII aviation painting published in 1993.
