Frank Schoonover, illustrator of the North American frontier

Abstract

Frank Schooner, one of the giants of the Golden Age of American Illustration, was renowned for his scenes of life on the western frontier of America and Canada. Schoonover captured the flavor of the west and northwest in his dramatic outdoor compositions which depicted cowboys, Indians, trappers, Eskimos - the people and way of life that he knew, loved, and painted first hand. His keen sense of observations, coupled with his vivid documentary style, made his illustrations powerful paintings in themselves. They are now exhibited and collected for their own sake, independent of the books they illustrated, as unforgettable documents of a legendary way of life. Like the other great painter/illustrators of the Brandywine School - he was a student of Howard Pyle and a contemporary of such notables as N.C. Wyeth and Harvey Dunn - Schoonover was passionate about the portrayal of the American past. Although he lived most of his life in the Brandywine River area of Pennsylvania and Delaware, his commitment to the frontier dominated his work. A natural love for adventure and a yearning to find his own style sent him initially to the Canadian northwest, where he took naturally to the challenge of frontier life. Living among the Indians, canoeing, traveling by dogsled, and fending for himself brought authentic flavor to his paintings which illustrated many popular books and stories of adventure - most of which are now forgotten, although the paintings endure. This handsome collection is the first full-scale illustrated study of Schoonover's work, not only rediscovering the paintings of a major artist, but providing an important visual document of frontier life.--From jacket flap.

Contents

List of color plates -- Preface -- Introduction -- The frontier -- Classics and history -- Paintings -- Chronology. Illustrations: Paxton portrait of F. E. S / William Paxton, 1921.