How can I get apache to serve static content in a reverse-proxied setup?

Solution 1:

Yes very much possible.

For example:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName yourdomain.tld
  ServerAlias www.yourdomain.tld *.yourdomain.tld  
  DocumentRoot /path/to/your/website/document/root

ProxyPass /images !
ProxyPass /assets !

    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/

    <Proxy http://localhost:8080/*>
       Allow from all
    </Proxy>

</VirtualHost>

I am considering tomcat server is running under port 8080 in your lo interface. Basically above configuration will proxy everythings to tomcat server except for yourdomain.tld/images and assets folder which will be directly served by the apache.