Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) Trappers on the Lake

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Feb 17, 2017 - Feb 18, 2017

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• Lot Description

  Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972)
  Trappers on the Lake, 1932
  signed and dated "Frank E. Schoonover '32" lower right
  oil on canvas, 20 by 44 in.
  
  "The voyageur was the son of Canada's lakes & rivers over his paddle strokes sped on the huge fur brigade "
  
  Frank E. Schoonover was born in 1877 in New Jersey. As an artist, he trained in illustration at the Drexel Institute with Howard Pyle, where he recalled he felt honored because his class was a pretty strong one-made up of big shots Jessie Willcox Smith, Maxfield Parrish." Schoonover would open a studio in Wilmington, Delaware, and for a time had a studio in Jamaica, down the street from fellow student and famed illustrator N.C. Wyeth. Like Wyeth, Schoonover completed many paintings for books and adventure stories during the GoldenAge of Illustration. Schoonover was considered the "Dean of Delaware Artists," founded the Wilmington Sketch Club, and helped found the Delaware Museum of Art.

  Cortlandt Schoonover writes, “Capturing outdoor scenes of action was Frank Schoonover’s natural delight - and the delight of his vast public. The western United States and Canada was Schoonover’s favorite setting. He had spent a great deal of time there: on horseback with the cowboys; traveling thousands of miles by canoe, dogsled, and snowshoe with the Indians; and trekking many long miles afoot. He became a magician of dramatic outdoor composition and always had his public eagerly anticipating the next pictorial adventure.”

   

  Trappers on the Lake was created by Schoonover for Canadian author Constance Lindsay Skinner’s 1933 story, My Canoe is All My Good. It was designed and published 

  as a double spread, and Skinner was very pleased with it, writing, “I am more or less enraptured...When Schoonover draws a canoe, he draws both a canoe and a dream…[I am] expressing my delight over the combinations of canoes, water, air, pines and voyagers, which are Mr. Schoonover’s special gifts.”

  Canoe scenes are among Schoonover’s masterworks, and they are highly valued on the market. As the Canoe Swept By… and A Northern Mist, each depicting canoe scenes, hold the two top prices for the artist at auction. Trappers on the Lake, with its bright colors and handsomely rendered figures, depicts a tranquil, merry day and stands among the finest paintings by the artist. In it, the reclining trapper displays Schoonover’s signature use of red in his hat. The life of a trapper on the frontier was not easy, but here Schoonover gives rare insight into a relaxed scene. Trappers on the Lake offers a unique glimpse of trappers with down time, playing the fiddle, smoking a pipe, and waving to other friendly companions.

  PROVENANCE: Harry Craig, May 24, 1937
  Private Collection
  Private Collection, New York
  LITERATURE: Constance Lindsay Skinner, My Canoe is All My Good," Junior Red Cross Journal, April 1933, pp. 176-77, illustrated.
  Frank E. Schoonover, The Edge of Wilderness, Toronto, 1974, p. 156, illustrated as Trappers on Lake.
  Cortlandt Schoonover, Frank Schoonover: Illustrator of the North American Frontier, New York, 1976.
  John R. Schoonover, Louise Schoonover, LeeAnn Dean, and Louise Schoonover Smith, Frank E. Schoonover, Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 2, No. 1924, p. 565, illustrated.

  Condition

  Condition report requests can be made via email or by telephone (info@copleyart.com or 617.536.0030). Any condition statement given is a courtesy to customers, Copley will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition.

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