Voilà un bon gros bouquin de 230 pages publié en 1972 par l’historien de l’illustration US Walt Reed et consacré au travail western de Harold Von Schmidt. Une première partie est consacrée à la vie de Von Schmidt – il est orphelin à cinq ans et sera élevé par son grand-père à San Francisco – et son approche du travail. Le reste du livre présente son travail sur l’Ouest Américain avec des commentaires sur chaque image.
Élève de Harvey Dunn, sa connaissance de l’univers western l’a amené à réaliser de nombreux travaux sur le thème même si son travail ne se réduit pas à cela. Il faut dire que, né en 1897, il a vécu le tremblement de terre de San Francisco, est amené à travailler en tant que bûcheron et même cow-boy pour gagner de l’argent. Son amour pour cette vie le verra même continuer à conduire des vaches alors qu’il a commencé une carrière d’illustrateur dans l’Est des États-Unis.
Son travail n’a pas la qualité picturale de Dunn et il est déjà plus proche d’un travail de publicité très efficace et simple à lire. On reconnait l’imagerie western des films américains des années 40/50, une imagerie qu’il utilise et qu’il inspire tout à la fois – une de ses peintures est le point de départ de La prisonnière du désert de John Ford. Il a un discours très réaliste sur la mythologie western et regrette que les États-Unis se soient construits sur les ruines de la culture indienne.
Le livre comporte de nombreuses images en niveaux de gris : les peintures étaient souvent conçues pour être reproduites de cette manière ou avec juste une couleur. Du coup, j’ai fait une sélection d’images peu connues de lui en gris.
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Des images qui réveillent des souvenirs de lecture d’enfance :)
@olivier : ne me dis pas que tu as vu ça quand tu étais jeune – ou alors tu parles d’un autre cow boy, qui d’ailleurs n’a jamais gardé de vache.
Oh que si ! Ce type d’illustration était dans les encylopédie illustrées ou bien faisaient office de couverture pour certains ouvrages sur les cow boys ( mais en couleurs ;)
@olivier : tu m’en diras tant ! Il faudra que tu retrouves les références que je vois ça de mes petits yeux incrédules.
je parle de ” style d’illustrations ” mais pas du peintre en question ;)
@olivier : ah d’accord. Ça devait être alors Marcellin.