Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner
Encyclopedia
A Charge to Keep
A Charge to Keep is a 1999 book written by George W. Bush and credited ghostwriter Michael Herskowitz, with a foreword by Karen Hughes. Later editions have the sub-title My Journey To The White House....
, was used as the cover image for the ghostwritten biography by the same name
A Charge to Keep
A Charge to Keep is a 1999 book written by George W. Bush and credited ghostwriter Michael Herskowitz, with a foreword by Karen Hughes. Later editions have the sub-title My Journey To The White House....
by George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. This painting, which hung in the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
during the Bush presidency was of special interest to journalists due to the interpretation given by Bush of the painting's meaning in light of the meaning and title attached to the painting by the artist.
Life and career
Born in LundenLunden
Lunden is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider, approx. 16 km north of Heide.Lunden is part of the Amt Kirchspielslandgemeinde Eider....
, Holstein, Germany, Koerner's parents immigrated to Clinton, Iowa
Clinton, Iowa
Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 26231as of 2010. Clinton, along with DeWitt, Iowa , was named in honor of the seventh governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Clinton is the principal city of the Clinton Micropolitan Statistical...
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
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
as a staff artist at $5 per day. Shortly thereafter, he married and accepted a job as art editor for a brand new newspaper, the United States Daily. Wjen the paper folded, he and his wife moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he was hired by Pilgrim Magazine to cover the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. He enrolled at the Art Students League for a two-year program between 1905–07, under George Bridgman
George Bridgman
George Brant Bridgman was a Canadian-American painter, writer, and teacher in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New York for some 45 years....
, Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
's teacher. A student colleague later persuaded Koerner to apply to Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.__FORCETOC__...
's illustration school in Wilmington. Koerner's exposure to Howard Pyle was significant, but his student colleagues also had much to offer and he shared techniques and styles with the likes of N. C. Wyeth
N. C. Wyeth
Newell Convers Wyeth , known as N.C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the pupil of artist Howard Pyle and became one of America's greatest illustrators...
, Harvey Dunn
Harvey Dunn
Harvey Thomas Dunn was an American painter. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, The Prairie is My Garden. In this painting, a mother and her son and daughter are out gathering flowers from the quintessential prairie of the Great Plains.-Early life:Dunn was born on a homestead...
, Frank Schoonover
Frank Schoonover
Frank Earle Schoonover was an American illustrator. Born in Oxford, New Jersey, he studied under Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and became part of what would be known as the Brandywine School...
and Stanley Arthurs. While still a Pyle student, he rented a studio adjacent to Anton Otto Fischer
Anton Otto Fischer
Anton Otto Fischer was an illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post.-Background:Born in Germany and orphaned at any early age, he ran away at the age of 15 to escape being forced into priesthood. He came to America as a deck hand on a German vessel...
and William Foster
William Foster
- People :*William Foster , Irish bishop*William Foster , American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient...
and the interaction between these talented students proved mutually invaluable.
Howard Pyle passed away in 1911, and Koerner published a tribute in the New Amstel Magazine. A year later, the first exhibition by Pyle's students was presented to the public, and Koerner's works figured prominently. 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. Koerner began researching, and The West captured his imagination. Koerner soon became one of the best-known artists of the old West, travelling to the area for further research.
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 his illustrations, including those by author Zane Grey
Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
(The Drift Fence [film: Drift Fence
Drift Fence
Drift Fence is a 1936 American film directed by Otho Lovering. The film is also known as Texas Desperadoes .-Cast:*Buster Crabbe as "Slinger" Dunn*Katherine DeMille as Molly Dunn*Tom Keene as Jim Travis...
] and Sunset Pass [film: Sunset Pass
Sunset Pass
Sunset Pass is a 1933 film directed by Henry Hathaway. It stars Randolph Scott and Tom Keene. -Cast:*Randolph Scott as Ash Preshton*Tom Keene as Jack Rock / Jim Collins*Kathleen Burke as Jane Preston*Harry Carey as John Hesbitt...
]) and Eugene Manlove Rhodes
Eugene Manlove Rhodes
Eugene Manlove Rhodes was a writer who was nicknamed the "cowboy chronicler".Rhodes was born in Tecumseh, Nebraska. He moved to New Mexico with his parents in 1881 and "fell in love" with the state. By age sixteen, he was an accomplished stonemason and road builder...
' classic, Paso Por Aqui (film: Four Faces West
Four Faces West
Four Faces West is a 1948 Western film starring Joel McCrea, his real-life wife Frances Dee, and Charles Bickford. It is based on the novel Pasó por aquí by Eugene Manlove Rhodes...
). It is estimated he completed nearly two thousand illustrations of which about eighteen hundred were done for magazines, as well as advertisements for C. W. Post
C. W. Post
Charles William Post , also known as C.W. Post, was an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry.-Biography:...
's Grape-Nuts
Grape-Nuts
Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal developed by C. W. Post in 1897. Post was a patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Despite its name, the cereal contains neither grapes nor nuts. The cereal is actually made from wheat and barley, in later...
and Postum
Postum
Postum was a powdered roasted grain beverage sold by the Kraft Foods company as a coffee substitute. The caffeine-free beverage mix was created by Postum Cereal Company founder C. W. Post in 1895 and marketed as a healthful alternative to coffee...
cereals.
Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish
Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery.-Life:...
influenced Koerner's bold use of color. Parrish illustrated “The Great Southwest” articles by Raymond Stannard Baker which appeared in Century Magazine. 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, The Ladies' Home Journal, Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, McClure's Magazine, American Magazine
American Magazine
The American Magazine was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie...
, Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
and Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
. 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. Each week he produced at least one full oil, a head, and a vignette. During the last three-years of his life, Koerner was seriously ill and unable to paint. Koerner's illustrations are compared with those of Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U. S...
, Charles M. Russell, Phillip R. Goodwin, and Harvey Dunn
Harvey Dunn
Harvey Thomas Dunn was an American painter. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, The Prairie is My Garden. In this painting, a mother and her son and daughter are out gathering flowers from the quintessential prairie of the Great Plains.-Early life:Dunn was born on a homestead...
. They are known for his bold brushwork with a vibrant color palette which enabled his vigorous depictions of the "Great American West", emblemic images of those untamed territories.