Carl Schmitt (May 6, 1889 – October 25, 1989Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers (Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1983). ) was an American painter, etcher, pastelist, and writer.
Life
Education and early career Schmitt was born in Warren, Ohio, the son of Jacob A. Schmitt (1861–1952), a music professor and organist, and Grace Tod Wood Schmitt (1864–1949). He left Warren High School before graduating to study art in New York City under the patronage of Zell Hart Deming, editor of the local Warren Tribune newspaper and a prominent local patron of the arts. After a year at the Chase School, Schmitt enrolled at the National Academy of Design studying with Emil Carlsen. He graduated from the NAD in 1909, winning top honors for his work in still life.American Art News, vol. 7, no. 32 (June 12, 1909), p. 2. While still a student at the Academy, Schmitt made his first visit to Silvermine, Connecticut, then home of the Silvermine Group of Artists, an artist colony under the leadership of sculptor Solon Borglum. He first exhibited with the Silvermine Group in 1910."Catalogue of the ... Art Exhibit given by the Silver Mine Group of Artists ... September 19–24, 1910." Solon H. Borglum and Borglum family papers, 1864–2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, box 9, folder 30. After Borglum's death in 1922 Schmitt was a charter member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists (now the Silvermine Arts Center).American Art News, Vol. 21, No. 6 (November 16, 1922), p. 8.
Friendship with Hart Crane Upon returning from a year of study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence (cut short by the First World War), Schmitt returned to Warren, where he received a number of commissions from prominent local citizens including Joseph G. Butler, Jr. and Henry K. Wick.Irene S. Sweetkind, Index of the Permanent Collection: The Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, OH: The Butler Institute of American Art, 1997). In 1916 Schmitt returned to New York, where he established a studio in the Stuyvesant Square neighborhood. Hart Crane, then an unknown poet and newly arrived in New York, was a frequent visitor to Schmitt's studio apartment in the early part of 1917.John Unterecker, Voyager: A Life of Hart Crane, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969), p. 53. Crane and Schmitt had met in Warren the previous year through Crane's aunt and Schmitt's patron Zell Hart Deming. Just before moving to New York, Crane wrote to Schmitt about his life in Cleveland, Ohio.Hart Crane to Carl Schmitt, [November] 1916, in The Poet's Vocation: Selections from the Letters of Hölderlin, Rimbaud, & Hart Crane, ed. William Burford and Christopher Middleton (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967), pp. 46–47. In one of his first letters to his mother from New York, Crane wrote, "Carl is a more wonderful man than you have any idea. A tremendous thinker!" A little later he wrote to his father: "Nearly every evening since my advent has been spent in the companionship of Carl. Last night ... we talked until twelve, or after, behind our pipes. He has some splendid ideas."Unterecker, pp. 56–57. Crane got to know some of the poets and writers in Schmitt's circle, including Conrad Aiken.Edward Butscher, Conrad Aiken: Poet of the White Horse Vale (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1988), p. 242. Although they would each pursue their own interests and friends in later years, Schmitt and Crane carried on an extensive correspondence, Crane sending drafts of his poems to Schmitt for his review. They saw each other for the last time in 1925 in New York with Zell Hart Deming. Crane described his friend at this meeting: "He was as always, looked and acted exactly the same as we remember him."Paul Mariani, The Broken Tower: A Life of Hart Crane (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999), pp. 175–76. A portrait of Crane by Schmitt, done almost 50 years later, is now in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.National Portrait Gallery, Catalog of American Portraits
Growing recognition and hardship Upon being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1917, Schmitt worked drawing maps in Washington, DC. While on leave in October 1918, he married Gertrude Lord, daughter of Austin W. Lord, a prominent New York architect and member of the Silvermine Group of Artists. They settled in Silvermine, their home for the remainder of their lives, where their family would grow to ten children.
Over the next twenty-five years Schmitt's work was accepted at major national exhibitions, including Carnegie International (1920–29, 1932, 1934) those at the Art Institute of Chicago (ten times between 1912 and 1936),Peter Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1888–1950, (Madsion, CT: Sound View Press, 1990). the Corcoran Gallery of Art (six times between 1912 and 1928),Peter Falk, ed., The Biennial Exhibition Record of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1907–1967, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1991). the National Academy of Design (four times between 1913 and 1924),Peter Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design, 1901–1950, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990). the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (six times between 1912 and 1930),Peter Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, vol. 2: 1876–1912 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1991), ; vol. 3: 1913–1968 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1991), . as well as numerous exhibitions in Silvermine and at galleries in New York. He was a guest at Yaddo in 1928, where he met the poet Stanley Kunitz and painter Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones.Micki McGee, Yaddo: Making American Culture (New York: The New York Public Library and Columbia University Press, 2008), ; a photo of the 1927 guests, including Carl Schmitt, may be found on page 60. His painting The Picnic was chosen for the art exhibition at the Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago in 1933.Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1933, p. C6; Catalogue of A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, June 1 to November 1, 1934 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), p. 75.
In the 1930s Schmitt caught the attention of Catholic social activist Peter Maurin, founder of the Catholic Worker newspaper, which published a series of articles about him in late 1934. Catholic Worker contributing writer Donald Powell recalls the first time he met Schmitt: "Several of us had gathered to discuss social justice. I remember his stating that social justice could be obtained only by starting with the individual; that is, when the individual was just, society was just, and that the Catholic could do the most by example. Which means, in effect, that Catholics must be converted to Catholicism before attempting to convert non-Catholics to it."Donald Powell, “Carl Schmitt – The Forgotten Man,” Catholic Worker, November, 1934. Maurin himself wrote an essay about Schmitt for the newspaper, later reprinted in his book Catholic Radicalism.Peter Maurin, "Carl Schmitt: The Artist," in Catholic Radicalism: Phrased Essays for the Green Revolution (Catholic Worker Books, 1949), pp. 48–49.
Financial hardship led Schmitt to sign up for the Public Works of Art Project in 1934; in 1936 Schmitt worked for the Federal Arts Project (the visual arts branch of the Works Progress Administration). He completed fifteen works (7 oil paintings and 8 drawings) which were distributed in various public buildings in Connecticut.WPA Art Project of the Connecticut State Library Shortly thereafter, an attack of tuberculosis forced him to cease work and seek treatment at a sanatorium in Tagliacozzo, Italy. His wife and family of ten children joined him there in 1938 but they all returned to the United States upon the outbreak of World War II the following year.Wilton Bulletin, October 25, 1989, p. 21C Three of Schmitt's sons soon returned to Europe to fight on the front lines.New Canaan War Veterans Speak: Stories of World War II, vol. 1 (New Canaan, Connecticut: n.p., 1946), pp. 76–81; New Canaan's Records of World War II, vol. 3: Honor Roll and Service Records, The Home Front, (New Canaan, CT: The War Records Committee of the Town of New Canaan and the New Canaan Historical Society, 1951), p. 84.
A friend described him during these difficult years: "A fellow of medium height, with a shock of dark brown hair, light brown eyes (Pan's eyes) and a deeply lined face. He looks, and is, ill-nourished. When painting he gets pains in the back of his neck and in his back and becomes so keyed up that he cannot eat. But he still worries the canvas with his brushes and fingers until at least part of his vision is realized."
Later years After the war Schmitt preferred to work in relative isolation in Silvermine for the next 50 years, exhibiting locally or by invitation. A large retrospective exhibit was held in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1980, featuring over 100 of his works. In an interview done during the exhibition he stated: "I tried not to exhibit unless I had to. I hate to see [my paintings] go out. I don't like to show. It's an interruption to painting but I feel I owe it to people. I've never sought publicity.""Artist, 92, doesn't believe in rushing his paintings," Stamford (CT) Advocate, Sept 12, 1980, p. 6. He continued to paint well into his nineties and celebrated his one hundredth birthday at his home in Silvermine surrounded by family and friends."Carl Schmitt Century Old Saturday," Wilton (CT) Bulletin, May 3, 1989, p. 1. He died in Norwalk, Connecticut a few months later.
Artistic philosophy From a 1921 letter to editor of the Catholic magazine America:
[I]t is good to remember that nothing but Catholic philosophy has ever bred an esthetic philosophy producing works which satisfy at once the sensuous, emotional, intellectual, and imaginative man. No other philosophy can coordinate these faculties.Letter to the editor of America, April 4, 1921.
From the essay "Ritual: The Gate" (1925):
Whenever in the past we have had mystical life and corporate life existing one in the other, a unity with stress laid upon the mystical (that is, Religion) there we have had art. Where there is Life there is art. Where there is true religion art cannot be stopped. Where there is no true religion art cannot be encouraged by a million uplifters.Carl Schmitt: The Vision of Beauty (Wilton, CT: The Carl Schmitt Foundation and Scepter Publishers, 2013), p. 108.
From a 1963 newspaper interview:
Art must be based on vision, not expressionism. Having aims and ideals in art is pretty rough and expressionism is not the aim."Carl Schmitt of Silvermine, Fine-Thinker and Fine-Artist," Wilton (CT) Bulletin, March 20, 1963, p3B.
From a 1978 newspaper interview in conjunction with a retrospective exhibit of the work of Silvermine artists:
I'm a visionary, an experimenter. I'm trying to extend the laws of painting; science has introduced hues the old masters never had. I tried to cope with hues and make them organic. That is impressionism, making forms which the old masters didn't have."Carl Schmitt: Innovative at 89," Wilton (CT) Bulletin, October 4, 1978, p. 8.
Selected writings "A Caution." The Pagan, November 1918.reprinted in Unterecker, p. 58. "Korčula, in the Adriatic." Scribner's Magazine, February 1929, with reproductions of four prints by Schmitt. "A Note on Europe." The American Review, September 1937. "Rome and Form." Liturgical Arts, November 1946. "Ritual: The Gate," "The Critic," and "And/Or" in Carl Schmitt: The Vision of Beauty (Wilton, CT: The Carl Schmitt Foundation and Scepter Publishers, 2013). Selected essays at the Carl Schmitt Foundation website
Critical responses to Schmitt's work From a review of an exhibition of religious art at a gallery in New York in 1922: