Charles Schreyvogel (January 4, 1861 – January 27, 1912) was an American painter of Western subject matter in the days of the disappearing frontier. Schreyvogel was especially interested in military life.
Life
He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey to Paul and Theresa Schreyvogel,Schreyvogel, Charles, in Who's Who in America (1901-1902 edition), via archive.org and grew up in a poor family of German immigrant shopkeepers on the Lower East Side of New York. Schreyvogel was unable to afford art classes and he taught himself to draw.
When Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show came to Brooklyn in 1894, Schreyvogel visited to sketch. He went on to become famous for his depictions of the American West, although he did much of his work in his studio (or its rooftop) in decidedly non-Western Hoboken.Hughes, Robert. "How The West Was Spun", Time, May 13, 1991. Accessed August 14, 2007. "It is of Charles Schreyvogel, a turn-of-the- century Wild West illustrator, painting in the open air. His subject crouches alertly before him: a cowboy pointing a six-gun. They are on the flat roof of an apartment building in Hoboken, N.J."
In 1901, his painting My Bunkie was awarded the Thomas Clarke Prize at the annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design.Charles Schreyvogel Papers, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Accessed August 14, 2007. He suddenly became recognized and earned what seemed like overnight fame. In 1902 Schreyvogel was elected to the Salmagundi Club New York as both Artist Member and Associate National Academician, remaining so until his death. Centennial roster of the Salmagundi Club since its inception in 1871 to 1972. (SCNY, New York, 1972, p. 106)
He died in Hoboken in 1912 and is buried in Flower Hill Cemetery, North Bergen, New Jersey.Project Remember, p. 42
Works by Schreyvogel are included in the collections of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,William S. and Ann Atherton Art of the American West Gallery , National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Accessed August 14, 2007. the Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
See also
Charles Marion Russell, western artist J. K. Ralston, western artist Frederic Remington, western artist
Notes James D. Horan. The Life And Art Of Charles Schreyvogel: Painter-Historian Of The Indian-Fighting Army Of The American West. New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1969. Rick Stewart. The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier. Hawthorne Publishing Company, 1986.
References
External links
Charles (or Carl) Schreyvogel (1861-1912) Attack on the Herd, ca.1907, Sid Richardson Museum, includes biography