TRIBUTE TO AN ILLUSTRATED BOOK, part 1

Harold von Schmidt's illustrations for Death Comes for the Archbishop were greatly admired when they first appeared in 1927. 

Von Schmidt was ideally suited to illustrate Willa Cather's tale of the southwestern desert.  He grew up in that land, roughing it on cattle drives, wrangling horses and walking the buffalo trails.  He got to know and love the desert by contemplating vast landscapes of clouds and rocks under a bright sun.  The desert, rather than the characters, became the center of his big, bold illustrations.  Such pictures are not just narrative representations of a text; rather they are intended to "illuminate" a book by complementing and expanding upon the words-- one of the highest roles for illustration. 

Von Schmidt chose to paint his pictures with black tempera on white board, ten time larger than the final published image. 

The potency of his illustrations was recognized and commented upon in arts magazines (which in those days paid close attention to important developments in the illustration world).

Von Schmidt did over 60 illustrations for the book, and they are artfully interspersed with the text to create a book that is itself an aesthetic object.

We have a few years left before books become obsolete, but the telltale signs are already here.  As books are gradually replaced by more effective and convenient means of ingesting content, we'll lose the qualities that make this book such a fine experience.  Generations raised on scrolling electrons on computer monitors won't miss the aroma of old paper, the feel of fine bindings, and especially the delight of images crafted by hand on the basis of long observation.  

This is the first in a series of posts in which I plan to pay tribute to special books that aren't discussed much anymore but which I think were especially well illustrated.