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 riding the buffalo trails. He got to know and love the desert by contemplating vast landscapes of clouds and rocks under an intense sun.
The desert, rather than the human characters, became the center of his big, bold illustrations for this book. This type of illustration is more than just a visual recital of the author's text. The term "Illustration" comes from the Latin lustrare, "to make bright, illuminate" and pictures like these are intended to achieve that by complementing the text, expanding and adding depth. After many centuries this remains one of the highest roles for illustration.
Von Schmidt chose to paint his pictures with black tempera on white board, ten times(!) 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).
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.
Reading about artists like Von Schmidt reminds me how eventful many of their lives were before they ever put brush to canvas. Exploration, hardship, travel, physical work…all of it fed directly into the art. There’s a richness that comes from firsthand experience that’s difficult to replicate.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's superior technology (its worse at doing the job), but rather the diminished human faculty caused by its use that will decrease the use of books (which is still thriving in many places). These are fabulous drawings, thanks.
ReplyDeleteBill
The thing about reading a physical book is that you are aware of the space you are situated in as a continuation of the physicality of the pages you are holding, a communion between imagination and body. Technology increases our reach, but with every extension another step is taken further from what we are.
ReplyDelete