There Was A Man

[markland]

While travelling through the St. Louis area yesterday, I stopped for gas and stumbled upon an antiguarian shop dealing in old illustrations, maps, letters, etc. Herb Pape has some good stuff too! He had several Custer illustrations from various magazines but the one I purchased was one I hadn't seen before. It is entitled: "There Was A Man: Custer's Last Stand-The Massacre That Will Never Be Forgotten" and it was "Painted Especially For Esquire By Harold Von Schmidt" & published in the '50's (perhaps 1950 or 1959, I can't tell from the illustration signature).

Can someone supply any history to go with the illustration. The magazine had a one-page synopsis of GAC's career written by Stewart H. Holbrook that is interesting, if somewhat incorrect (the Indians were not gone from the valley the next morning!).

I took a snapshot of it which hopefully Diane can post without violating any type of copyright rules. If she can't, let me know and I will send whomever the photo I took.

Best of wishes,

Billy

[George Armstrong Custer]

Billy,
Harold was the father of Eric von Schmidt, who painted the awesome 'Here Fell Custer', probably the closest depiction we'll ever get of what the final moments on Custer Hill looked like. The father, Harold, had painted Custer making his last stand - the one you have - in terms much more in the style of Errol Flynn. There's a link to Eric von Schmidt's site, which has information about his father, from the Friends of the Little Big Horn home pages. You can access it direct at:

www.vonsworks.com/Custer.htm

Eric also discusses his father's version in comparison with his own in the superlative essay 'Sunday At the Little Bighorn With George', reprinted in Paul Hutton's The Custer Reader.

You might already know that Brian W. Dippie also discusses your very picture, including why it was commissioned and the exact date of its appearance, in Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth, p. 48 & 129. If not, Dippie has this to say:

"For example, as the seventy-fifth anniversary of the battle drew near, two national magazine's commissioned Last Stand paintings. Esquire featured a superbly-executed version by veteran illustrator Harold von Schmidt as a color gatefold in its September 1950 issue. The Indians are depicted rushing up the slope towards a pinnacle occupied by a magnificent Custer, unconcernedly blasting away at his enemies with two pistols. " [Dippie then discusses William Reusswig's Last Stand painting commissioned at the same time by Colliers, before concluding:] "Actually, while von schmidt's and Reusswig's paintings have exceptional artistic merit, they contain many questionable Last Stand traditions, most notably the notion of a fierce hand-to-hand encounter that was decided by an overwhelming charge. Both works also contain a number of factual errors. And, perhaps most interesting of all, neither does a thing to diminish the heroic Custer image."

Hope this is of some interest - and congratulations on picking up a first printing of Harold von schmidt's work!

Regards,
George

[bhist]

You can see a photo of Harold von Schmidt’s “Custer’s Last Stand” at www.vonsworks.com/Smithsonian_article.htm -- GAC mentioned “Sunday at the LBH with George” –

If you don’t have Hutton’s Custer Reader, you can read the same article at www.friendslittlebighorn.com/Storyofherefellcuster.htm --

Harold von Schmidt’s original “Custer’s Last Stand” hangs on the walls at West Point.

[Tricia]

I am particularly interested in the positioning of Custer in the painting ... not at the "top" of a hill at all--and I do think there's something quite successful in making him something less than "up front and centre." Certainly the strong diagonals in the work add to its dynamic tension. Good, good stuff.

Regards,
LMC

[George Armstrong Custer]

Further to my last, I've looked out Montana, The Magazine of Western History, Autumn 1996, in which Dippie's extensive article on the Last Stand iconography 'What Valor Is': Artists and the Mythic Moment pp. 40 - 55, also mentions the Harold von Schmidt work.

Dippie writes:

"Some have ventured beyond visual realism to psychological realism, capturing the horror of the end as morale collapses, despair sets in, and hopelessness haunts the faces of the doomed soldiers. Eric von Schmidt's fascinating Here Fell Custer is a case in point. But most artists have been faithful to the higher truth of heroism on the grand scale perfectly expressed by Eric's father Harold von Schmidt in his painting Custer's Last Stand, reproduced in Esquire magazine in 1950. "Three-quarters of a century after his death on a stark bitter hill in Montana the Custer legend stands invincible, immutable," the accompanying text noted, "Seven decades of critical attack has failed to dent it. Custer's Last Stand is a hallowed immortality." And so the myth."

The Montana article has b/w reproductions of the Last Stand's by the von Scmidt's, father and son, as well as a total of 45 reproductions of images of the battle. The Custer Battlefield Museum at Garryowen has (or had) back issues of this for sale.

Interesting to hear that the original Harold von Schmidt painting is now housed at West Point - I wonder what the nature of the contact between the Point and Esquire magazine was that facilitated that!

The signed and numbered print of Eric von Schmidt's Here Fell Custer is the piece of Custer art which has pride of place on my own wall; an impressive focal point at 46 x 28 inches including frame & mount. Remember, this is the picture reckoned accurate enough to serve as a guide plaque on Custer Hill! According to the von Schmidt site linked above, the last copies of this limited print are still available - I'd say get one while you can!

Ciao,
GAC

[markland]

Gosh! Ask and ye shall receive! GAC & Bob, many thanks for the information. Yes, I did note two obvious historical exaggerations, i.e., the stupid saber stuck in the ground beside GAC and the buckskin shirt (but if DeRudio had carried his presentation saber along as alleged, perhaps GAC borrowed that along with the binoculars ;D ). Still not as bad as the Remington. The Von Schmidt the Elder is still very nice and makes a good first collector's item for me. The giant sucking sound you hear is me continually being drawn into the happenings on June 25, 1876!

I bought another print/illustration while at Mr. Pape's, "An Exchange of Prisoners" by Gilbert Gaul which appeared in the October 29, 1898 issue of Harper's Weekly. Here is a rough scan of it (I accidentally cropped the top too much) which I will rescan this evening after the archives and an overdose of b-ball.

freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~familyinformation/Exchange_of_Prisoners_smallest.jpg

Best of wishes,

Billy