NEWS
Welcome to the Frank E. Schoonover news page. It will keep you posted on details and upcoming activities including current exhibitions, publications, and events involving the artist’s work.
The Frank E. Schoonover Catalogue Raisonne is available at Oak Knoll Books in New Castle, DE as well as at the gift shops at the Delaware Art Museum, the Biggs Museum, and Brandywine River Museums.
NEW ….FRANK E. SCHOONOVER GALLERY OF AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION
BIGGS MUSEUM, DOVER, DELAWARE
In November 2013, the Schoonover Fund completed its fund raising drive to name the new Frank E. Schoonover Gallery of American Illustration at the newly renovated Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware. Through a matching grant, Schoonover supporters have more than matched the challenge of $12,500. All funds donated beyond the $25,000 cost for naming the gallery will be used to expand the museum’s collection of Schoonover works.
The Board of the Fund extends many thanks to those who have given to make this possible. Visitors to the Frank E. Schoonover Gallery of American Illustration, will enjoy significant Schoonover works and memorabelia as well as the ‘Schoonover Red’ paint on the walls. This color is found in most Schoonover paintings and was used as a signature highlight.
The Schoonover exhibit changes on a regular basis, so revisits are encouraged. For more information about the museum, please see the Biggs Museum of American Art website. The Biggs Museum is located across from the state house in Dover, DE. Hours are listed on its website.
NEWLY FOUND WORKS BY SCHOONOVER
It is truly gratifying to “find” heretofore unlocated works by the artist. The most recent is #834 which is on autcion in Scottsdale Arizona (March 2014). Also found was #256, “On the Little Bull Rapids,” (36’x24′) oil on canvas, which was inherited by a family that is having it appraised.
Another is #1600, a pen and ink. It was given by the artist to a friend for her birthday in 1967 and recently inherited by a member of the family who contacted Schoonover Studios in Wilmiington, DE. The newly garnered information for both paintings has been added to the database on this website.
Works by Schoonover have been found all over the United States. We encourage anyone who reads this Newsletter to join us in the search for heretofore unearthed Schoonover work. Even though the book is published, additional information is welcome and is being regularly added and published on this new website. Please let us know of any success by sending an email to venus@nrm.org.
Important information is needed from each painting…especially the correct size and correct inscription on the front of the painting. Any notes or labels on the stretchers or on the back of the painting, need to be reported. Schoonover often wrote the daybook number on the back of the paintings in black paint. Other information may had been included such as the locale and date. These are vital to the complete the information in the Catalogue Raisonne.
SCHOONOVER DOCUMENTARY DVD’s FOR SALE
“ Frank E. Schoonover – A Long Life in Art“, a half an hour documentary produced by Teleduction, was aired for the first time on, WHYY-TV, a PBS station on Labor Day, 2008 and has been subsequently reshown. COPIES OF THE DVD ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE at the Delaware Art Museum, the Brandywine River Museum and the Biggs Museum in Dover, DE.
This film was primarily financed by supporters of the Frank E. Schoonover Fund, Inc. The Wyeth Foundation donated a matching grant of $10,000 which was matched by the Schoonover Fund with the help of various supporters for the completion of the project.
During the summer of 2007, the film’s director, Sharon Baker, the photographer, Karol Schmiegel (Schoonover Fund Board representative to Teleduction), and Louise Schoonover Smith met in Bushkill, PA, the location of Frank Schoonover’s summer home. Filming occurred at the Big Bushkill across from the old homestead (no longer standing), the Bushkill Falls, the Delaware River, the Bushkill Cemetary where Schoonover family members are buried and other places of import. Included are also rare video and sound clips of the artist as the story unfolds as told by his grandchildren, Louise Schoonover Smith, John Schoonover, and Cortlandt Schoonover, Jr..
The award winning documentary entitled, “Frank E. Schoonover: The Authentic Artist,” has been produced by WVIA in Scranton, PA with Executive Producer Andrew Sordoni. The work, completed by the creative Art Director Greg Matkosky for this hour long presentation, features Schoonover’s illustrative work in Scranton, Pennsylvania exposing injustices to children in the coal mines and women in the silk mills. It includes outstanding aspects of the artist’s life and work, including the landscapes that he rendered of the environs of Bushkill, Pennsylvania and other sites along the Delaware River.
SCHOONOVER MURAL IN COURT HOUSE
All are invited to view the impressive mural entitled ‘The Artisan’, painted by Frank E. Schoonover. Measuring 24′ by 7′ , it is located on a large wall just inside the entrance to the New Castle County Courthouse on King Street in Wilmington, DE. It is best viewed from the second floor gallery across from the mural.
Painted in 1938 for the H. Fletcher Brown Polytechnic School, the mural was rescued when the school was demolished over twenty years ago. It was restored and restretched by Timothy Jayne and his staff at the Twistback Conservancy. The side panels explain the meaning of the mural.
Plaques celebrating the long friendship between H. Fletcher Brown and Frank E. Schoonover are posted on the walls of the first floor. The Alumni of the H. Fletcher Brown School has been most instrumental in securing these informations pieces.
HALL OF FAME
Frank E.Schoonover was inducted into the Society of Illustrators’s Hall of Fame in 1998.
The Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd St. NYC, NY
(Phone 212-838-2560)
(www.societyillustrators.org)