!!!! MATTHEWS GALLERY 669 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.992.2882

"March Without Glory" 14 x 36" unframed, 22 x 44.5" framed, oil on canvas Signed WHD Koerner, lower right Inscribed on back stretcher bar "Mad Hack Henderson All day the column plodded forward" Note: Illustration for a story by Peter Clarke MacFarlane which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Dec 13, 1919, volume 192.

ARTIST INFORMATION

Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner (1878–1938), also known as Wilhelm Heinrich Dethlef

Koerner, William HD Koerner, WHDK, or W.H.D. Koerner, was a noted illustrator of the

American West whose works became known to new audiences when his painting, nicknamed A

Charge to Keep, was used as the cover image for the ghostwritten biography by the same name by George W. Bush. This painting, which hung in the Oval Office during the Bush presidency was of especial interest to journalists due to the interpretation given by Mr. Bush of the painting's meaning in light of the meaning and title attached to the painting by the artist.

Biography:

William Henry Dethlef Koerner is renowned as one of the master illustrators of Americaʼs Wild

West, ranking with , Charles M. Russell, Phillip R. Goodwin, and Harvey

Dunn. Koernerʼs illustrations are known for his bold brushwork with a vibrant color palette which enabled his vigorous depictions of the ʻGreat American West,ʼ emblemic images of those untamed territories. Born in Lunden, Holstein, Germany, Koernerʼs parents immigrated to

Clinton, Iowa when he was three years old. Although he had little art training as a youth, his raw talent was always obvious to his parents and to everyone who viewed his sketches. At the age of twenty, Koerner was hired by the Chicago Tribune as a staff artist at $5 per day, quite a respectable income in 1898. Shortly thereafter, he married and accepted a job as art editor for a brand new newspaper, the Daily. Unfortunately, that newspaper was short-lived, and as such, the young couple decided that New York could not survive without them and they moved east. Once established in New York, Koerner was hired by Pilgrim Magazine to cover the

1904 St. Louis Exposition, it was then that he realized that he needed proper instruction to succeed further in his chosen field. He enrolled at the Art Students League for a two-year program between 1905–07, under the venerable George Bridgeman, Norman Rockwellʼs teacher. A student colleague later persuaded Koerner to apply to Howard Pyleʼs illustration school in Wilmington. Koernerʼs exposure to was significant, but his student colleagues also had much to offer and he shared techniques and styles with the likes of N. C.

Wyeth, , and Stanley Arthurs. While still a Pyle student, he rented a studio adjacent to and William Foster and the interaction between these talented students proved mutually invaluable.

Howard Pyle passed away in 1911, and Bill Koerner was honored to write a eulogy tribute to his beloved mentor, it was published in the New Amstel Magazine. A year later, the first exhibition by Pyleʼs students was presented to the public and Koernerʼs works figured prominently, standing out amongst very strong competition. In 1919, the Saturday Evening Post art editor invited Koerner to illustrate two articles with Western themes which proved to be a major turning point in his life. The articles, “The Covered Wagon” and “Traveling the Old Trails” entailed many Western frontier scenes, which up to that point, he had not experienced. Immediately Koerner thrust himself into researching the correct depictions of things totally unfamiliar. The West immediately captured his imagination and captivated his soul and as a result, he dove into itʼs history, tools and weapons, livestock and wildlife, architecture and building types and the eccentric characters who inhabited the plains and mountains. In the process, WHD Koerner became one of the best-known artists of the old West. He learned more about the visual elements than most seasoned cowboys could articulate and went to gain more knowledge of the authentic way to picture the West. Trips with his family ensued as reconnaissance journeys to absorb the atmosphere in order to better portray reality. Ultimately, 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 two hundred and fifty stories with Western themes and painted over six hundred pictures for periodicals. He illustrated a number of books that later were made into films based on WHDK's illustrations, including those by author, Zane

Grey (The Drift Fence [film: Drift Fence] and Sunset Pass [film: Sunset Pass]) and Eugene

Manlove Rhodesʼ classic, Paso Por Aqui (film: Four Faces West). Overall it is assumed that he completed nearly two thousand illustrations of which about eighteen hundred were done for magazines, as well as advertisements for C. W. Post ʻs Grape-Nuts and Postum cereals.

In 1924, the Koerner family took a trip to Montana where his fame for Wild West paintings had grown widespread and he was received ʻhomeʼ as a local cowboy. Americanʼs always loved the notion of the frontier and a rugged lifestyle of independence. Koerner was one of the first to portray it accurately for mass consumption. It is not surprising to learn that Maxfield Parrish was a great influence on Koerner and his use of color. Parrish illustrated “The Great Southwest” articles by Raymond Stannard Baker which appeared in Century Magazine. In those western landscapes Parrish burst forth with bold colors used in a way which had not been done before. The colors seemed unreal and even surreal; pure oranges, cobalt blue and purple skies, red suns with cadmium streams of light-a vision to behold and the Parrish images, like the West itself, captivated Bill Koerner.

A prolific and versatile artist-illustrator, ʻBig Billʼ Koernerʼs work gained considerable visibility through his cover and story illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, The Ladiesʼ Home

Journal, Harper's Magazine, McClure's Magazine, American Magazine, Cosmopolitan

(magazine) and Redbook. At the time of his death in 1938 at fifty-eight, the artist had received commissions for over 500 paintings and completed drawings for more than 200 western-themed stories.

- Adapted from Wikipedia

COLLECTIONS:

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ The National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI