  |
WHD Koerner
1878-1938
William Henry Dethlef Koerner is renowned as one of the master illustrators of the American West, along with the likes of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Koerner’s illustrations are known for their bold brushwork and a vibrant palette which support his vigorous and honest depictions of the ‘Great American West.’
Born in Lunden, Holstein, Germany, he immigrated at three years old to Clinton, Iowa. In 1898, he was hired by the Chicago Tribune as a staff artist at $5 per day, although his training was little and his talents obvious, but untamed. A short time later, he married and accepted a job as art editor of a short-lived newspaper, the United States Daily. Soon the young couple determined that New York could not survive further without them, and sure enough Koerner was hired by Pilgrim Magazine to cover the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Realizing that he needed instruction to succeed further in his career, he enrolled at the Art Students League in NYC (1905-07) and studied under the venerable George Bridgeman. Not long afterwards, another student persuaded Koerner to apply to Howard Pyle’s school in Wilmington where he was admitted in 1907. The exposure to Pyle was significant, but his student colleagues also had much to offer and he learned from the likes of N. C. Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Frank Schoonover and Stanley Arthurs. He rented a studio just adjacent to Anton Otto Fischer and William Foster and the interaction between these talented art students proved mutually invaluable.
In 1911, Howard Pyle passed away and Bill Koerner wrote a tribute to his mentor, which was published in the New Amstel Magazine. A year later in Wilmington, the first exhibition by Pyle’s students was shown and Koerner was prominently included. Between the years 1919 and 1922, the Post art editor asked Koerner to illustrate two series of articles with Western themes, it proved to be a major turning point in his career. The articles, “The Covered Wagon” and “Traveling the Old Trails” entailed Western scenes that he had never experienced. Thus, he was immediately thrust into the position of researching libraries for the correct depictions of things unfamiliar. It captured his imagination and his soul and as a result, he became one of the best-known artists of the old West. He thereafter went to great lengths to gain knowledge of the authentic way to
|
|
picture things Western. Many subsequent trips out west with his family ensued. His paintings were imbued with an ambience true to the territories he was depicting just as Pyle had taught. From 1922 onwards, Koerner illustrated more than 250 stories with Western themes and painted over 600 pictures for periodicals. He also illustrated a number of books including those by author, Zane Grey (The Drift Fence and Sunset Pass) and Eugene M. Rhodes’s classic, Paso Por Aqui. Overall it is assumed that he completed nearly 2,500 illustrations of which about 1,800 were done for magazines. He also did advertisements for C. W. Post ‘s Grape-Nuts and Postum cereals.
Koerner’s studies with Pyle coupled with exposure to a circle of first class students provided him with the impetus to create images of our popular culture, which reached a mass-circulation audience of enormous size. A few years later, in 1924, the Koerner family took a trip to Montana where his fame for Wild West paintings had grown widespread.
It is not surprising to learn that Maxfield Parrish was a great influence on Koerner and his use of color. For Century Magazine Parrish illustrated “The Great Southwest” a series of articles by Ray S. Baker. In those western landscapes Parrish burst forth with bold colors in a way, which had not been done hitherto by any artist. The colors almost seemed unreal, surreal, they were pure oranges, cobalt blue and purple skies, red suns with cadmium streams of light-a vision to behold and they captivated Bill Koerner.
A prolific and versatile artist-illustrator, ‘Big Bill’ Koerner’s work gained considerable visibility through his cover and story illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, Harper’s, McClure’s and Red Book. He died in 1938 at 58 years of age, having been seriously ill and bedridden for three years prior, unable to paint.
|
