Frank E. Schoonover: American Visions
Golden Age of Illustration shines in new Frank Schoonover exhibition now open at the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Stockbridge, MA
Illustrators had an oversized role in the dissemination of American culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. This was well before TV, film, radio and even high-quality photographic reproduction in books and magazines. If you lived in 1900 and you saw an image on a book, in a magazine or on a billboard, more than likely it was created by an illustrator.
Frank Schoonover was one of the artists of the Golden Age of Illustration who played a role in weaving the fabric of American culture and he is featured in a new exhibition now open at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Frank E. Schoonover: American Visions, which opened in November, will feature more than 80 works, including original paintings that ended up in adventure magazines and books such as literary classics White Fang, The Call of the Wild, Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson.
A theme that runs strong in many of Schoonover’s works—as well as works from other artists who were taught under Howard Pyle and the Brandywine School—is adventure, which Schoonover was familiar with from a very early age.
“Schoonover really was an adventurer in
many ways,” says Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, deputy director and chief curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum. “He grew up in New Jersey and he spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania with his grandparents and he was exposed to the outdoors, nature and fishing. Later, as a young artist, he remarkably took Pyle’s advice to heart, that an artist should live what they paint. He took this amazing trip to the Hudson Bay region of Canada and lived there from November 1903 to March 1904. He traveled with fur traders by dog sled, snow shoe and canoe. It was unbelievable the length he went to experience nature. He also traveled the West and Jamaica…he gave access to people who would never venture to these locations. He seemed fearless, and he was dedicated to producing art that was authentic.”
Adventure-filled works include Holding the Claim, a 1906 piece from Outing Magazine; the 1899 work Sinking of the Yawl Boat from Everett T. Tomlinson’s book A Jersey Boy in Revolution; and Circle of Fire (They Can Come in and Get Me Now), a 1906 piece from White Fang by Jack London, an author that Schoonover painted for frequently. Also on view are works with a more journalistic origin, including several pieces Schoonover completed for a major article in a 1903 issue of Mcclure’s Magazine titled “Children of the Coal Shadow.” The article drew considerable attention to issues involving child labor and the “plight of youth amid the Industrial Revolution.”
One of the prominent Western pieces is Abe Catherson (Pony Express Rider), a 1916 painting done for Charles Alden Seltzer’s book The Range Boss. The work is punctuated with dramatic action and a mesmerizing blue sky over dusty plains. A number of the original works on display will be shown with the publications they originally appeared in so viewers can see how the artwork was reproduced in the early 1900s.
The Norman Rockwell Museum comes to the exhibition with a unique perspective as the controller of the Schoonover catalogue raisonné, which was first managed by Schoonover’s grandchildren. “The Schoonover Fund helped bring an online presence to his work, but they wanted to make sure his legacy was preserved so the museum became involved because it aligned perfectly with our mission,” Plunkett says, referring to www.frankschoonover.org. “We’ve continued what they started and really turned it into a living and growing site.”
Frank E. Schoonover: American Visions continues through May 27, 2019.