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109

Koerner, W.H.D. (1878 - 1938)

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:20,000.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Koerner, W.H.D. (1878 - 1938)
<strong>Koerner, W.H.D. </strong>
(1878 - 1938)

<strong>The Long Rifle, Senorita, 1931</strong>

oil on board
26 x 33 inches
initialed lower right: <i>WHDK</i>

William Henry Dethlef Koerner was born in Germany, but his family immigrated to the United
States and settled in Clinton, Iowa, when he was still a baby. Before he began to seriously paint in oil, he had a distinguished career as an illustrator of well-known books and magazines. When he was eighteen, he went to Chicago and worked as a "rapid-sketch" artist for the Tribune, capturing likenesses quickly by hand. This was, of course, before the widespread use of photoengraving, and later the use of actual photographs, made this difficult work obsolete. In 1905, Koerner moved with his family to New York and studied at the Art Students League, where the sculptor Gutzon Borglum was among his instructors. Two years later, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, where he
attended seminars by the "father of American illustration," Howard Pyle. An impeccably trained and dedicated artist, Koerner’s expert draftsmanship and flair for dynamic, yet balanced compositions are evident in this striking oil.

More than three million people would have seen Koerner's illustrations in the popular periodical, <i>The Saturday Evening Post,</i> during the first decades of the twentieth century. Quite possibly, it was on an assignment for this magazine in 1919, illustrating Emerson Hough's series, <i>Traveling the Old Trails,</i> that he became enamored of the American West and the people who inhabited it. He would eventually travel to Montana, California, and the Southwest, constantly observing and sketching the daily life of those around him. No matter where he was or who he met, he portrayed his subjects with a sense of dignity and independence, as seen here in <i>The Long Rifle Senorita.</i> Guns, and particularly rifles, figure prominently in several of his paintings. They are often held by a single figure in a group, a nod to the need for individuals to maintain
order in the wide-open spaces of the West. The unfinished edges and loosely defined borders of this oil make it properly termed a vignette, a compositional technique that can be traced to Koerner's training as an illustrator. Today, Western--themed oils such as this one are
recognized as gems within his extensive oeuvre.—DW


William Henry Dethlef Koerner was born in Germany, but his family immigrated
to the United States and settled in Clinton, Iowa, when he was still a baby.
Before he began to seriously paint in oil, he had a distinguished career as an
illustrator of well-known books and magazines. When he was eighteen, he went
to Chicago and worked as a "rapid-sketch" artist for the Tribune, capturing
likenesses quickly by hand. This was, of course, before the widespread use of
photoengraving, and later the use of actual photographs, made this difficult
work obsolete. In 1905, Koerner moved with his family to New York and studied
at the Art Students League, where the sculptor Gutzon Borglum was among his
instructors. Two years later, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, where he
attended seminars by the "father of American illustration," Howard Pyle. An
impeccably trained and dedicated artist, his expert draftsmanship and flair for
dynamic, yet balanced compositions are evident in this striking oil.

More than three million people would have seen Koerner's illustrations in the
popular periodical, The Saturday Evening Post, during the first decades of the
twentieth century. Quite possibly, it was on an assignment for this magazine in
1919, illustrating Emerson Hough's series, Traveling the Old Trails, that he
became enamored of the American West and the people who inhabited it. He would
eventually travel to Montana, California, and the Southwest, constantly
observing and sketching the daily life of those around him. No matter where he
was or who he met, he portrayed his subjects with a sense of dignity and
independence, as seen here in The Long Rifle Senorita. Guns and particularly
rifles, figure prominently in several of his paintings. They are often held by
a single figure in a group, a nod to the need for individuals to maintain order
in the wide-open spaces of the West. The unfinished edges and loosely defined
borders of this oil make it properly termed a vignette, a compositional
technique that can be traced to Koerner's training as an illustrator. Today,
western--themed oils such as this one are recognized as gems within his
extensive oeuvre. DAW

Provenance:
Private Collection, New Mexico

Literature:
Stewart Edward White, Saturday Evening Post, March 7, 1931
W.H.D. Koerner: Illustrator of the West, ex. cat. Los Angeles, California: Los
Angeles County Museum of Natural History, 1968
WHD Koerner: Illustrating the Western Myth, ex. cat. Fort Worth, Texas: Amon
Carter Museum of Art, 1969
W.H. Hutchinson, The World, The Work & The West of W.H.D. Koerner, Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978
Walt Reed, The Illustrator in America (1860-2000) New York, New York:
Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001
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