THE END OF 2024

 The tail end of 2024 is jumping the fence.

All that remains of the old year are its flanks disappearing into the night, never to return.

But it is the hope and faith of this blog that some qualities are timeless, and remain undiminished by the turning of the calendar page; that excellence is new forever, and that it rewards revisiting. 

I think Harold von Schmidt is one of the most under-appreciated of the great mid-century illustrators.

Harold von Schmidt, detail from "Major Dawes Takes a Shortcut," 1934

There are thousands of paintings of riders in the night, and 99% of them portray the rider racing toward the viewer, or at least in profile. That's the established formula.

  

But von Schmidt takes the opposite approach.  Here there's no onrushing horse, no dramatic face of the rider or his horse or even of his pursuers.  Instead, the star of this painting is just the muscular butts on those escaping horses.  Von Schmidt embellishes their power by showing horse tails and flapping coats.  

Also, notice that von Schmidt doesn't employ melodramatic special effects, such as a spotlight from a convenient moon; when an artist controls value as well as von Schmidt, he doesn't need such devices. 

A beautiful piece of work! 

Here's wishing you a happy and healthy new year!