Harold Von Schmidt

COLLECTION

The A.R. Mitchell Museum is home to eight original Von Schmidt paintings. Many were part of Mitchell’s personal collection as illustrated by a piece dedicated to Mitchell with the note, “Mitch, sorry it isn’t better.” A gentle nod to Mitchell’s mastery of horse anatomy.

Alongside paintings, the museum houses a war poster designed by Von Schmidt in the 1942 when he was invited by the U.S. Air Force to serve in the European Theatre of Operations as an Artist-Correspondent and letters from the 30s to 80s from both Von Schmidt and his wife, Roberta Von Schmidt. Many letters reminisce about holidays spent together in New York while at the Grand Central School of Art and the two friend’s admiration for the American West.

BIOGRAPHY

Harold Von Schmidt was born in Alameda, California in 1893. Orphaned at the age of five, he spent a year in an orphanage before going to live with his grandfather. As a youth, Von Schmidt worked as a cowhand and construction worker. He began his art studies at the California School of Arts and Crafts while still in high school, later working for advertiser Foster and Kleiser in San Francisco, the same advertising firm that Mitchell worked for in Portland, Oregon.

In 1924, Von Schmidt moved to New York City and enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art, studying under teacher Harvey Dunn. During this period, Von Schmidt became close friends with Mitchell after the two bonded over knot tying and their shared experience of cowboying. While Mitchell was in New York, he often spent holidays with the Von Schmidt family.

Harold Von Schmidt's work primarily appeared in magazines such as Collier's Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Liberty, The Saturday Evening Post, and Sunset Magazine. Although he preferred magazine work and illustrated only a few books, he also dedicated two years to preparing sixty illustrations for a deluxe edition of Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, a novel based on the life of Archbishop Lamy, persecutor of the Penitente Brotherhood and a defining figure in Southwest history.

Von Schmidt believed that interior illustrations suited his style better, allowing him to create the realistic action scenes for which he was renowned. The combination of his knowledge of horse anatomy and the intense action in many of his paintings evokes the feeling of being in the midst of the action.

In 1948, he was recruited by Albert Dorne to be one of the founding faculty members of the Famous Artists School. In 1968, he was awarded the first gold medal by the trustees of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Harold Von Schmidt passed away on June 3, 1982, in Westport, Connecticut.