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Eric von Schmidt: Westporters Who Knew Him

By Emily Hamilton Laux

Eric von Schmidt, the renowned Westport artist and folk musician who died
Friday, Feb 2, at the age of 75, was known to many, but a few Westporters had a
special insight into him and his work.Howard Munce (l) with Eric von Schmidt
in 2004. Contributed photo


Among them was Howard Munce, 91, a fellow Westport artist.


“I knew him from the age of 5,” Munce said. “In 1935, I was in the
process of applying to the Pratt Institute, and I couldn’t have been more
of an amateur.”


Someone in Westport suggested that Munce go see Harold von Schmidt, Eric’s
father who was a very well known painter and illustrator, specializing in
scenes of the American West.

‘Von’ was flourishing at the time,” Munce said.


“On the door of his studio (on Evergreen Avenue) was a knocker in the
shape of a horseshoe. I knocked, and a distant voice told me to come in.
Well, I opened the door and fell right over the model stand that was in the
entrance.”


Harold von Schmidt reviewed Munce’s portfolio.


“It was my first smell of oil plaint. And also his studio was a wonderland
of cowboy memorabilia,” Munce said.


“Well I stayed and stayed, even after his wife had rung her bell for lunch
several times. I finally came out of the studio and found that my old
Chevrolet had a flat tire.


“I jacked up the tire and got under the car, and then this little boy
crawled under the car with me. Well that was Eric and he was 5 years old.”


Munce said he watched young von Schmidt grow up.


“Although he was not born in Westport, he took great pride in calling
himself a ‘townie,’” Munce said.


“He played on the Staples football team--which his father coached--and
grew up playing with the Saugatuck kids.”One of von Schmidt’s “Giants
of the Blues” series. Emily Hamilton Laux for WestportNow.com


Both von Schmidt and Munce studied with the American painter Julian Levi,
who taught at the Art Students League.


Munce spent summer of 1947 studying with Levi at Springs in East Hampton,
N.Y.


“Eric had the most beautiful handwriting,” Munce recalled.


“He never stopped working. You could drive by his place on Evergreen
Avenue any time of day or night and the lights were always on.”


Munce said of von Schmidt’s “Giants of the Blues” series of paintings
that now hang at Staples High School:


“He knew history and knew that the history of jazz and blues was
disappearing. For those paintings he did voluminous research on the
musicians—the clothing, the hairstyles.


“Also he had a great knowledge of native Americans, one of most famous
paintings is ‘Custer’s Last Stand.’”


Munce said he visited von Schmidt regularly. The last three times, von
Schmidt was sleeping much of the time.


Westport artist Ann Chernow also knew von Schmidt well.Ann Chernow: von
Schmidt ‘s work was “always very emotional.” File photo


“His work was wonderful,” she said.


“It was always very emotional, which is something that may also have come
from his music. He was a great painter and musician and it’s very rare to
find someone with all of these talents.”


Chernow added: “Eric felt all of these things. His work was accessible and
it was also very modern even though it was narrative.”


She said von Schmidt was never afraid to tackle any subject.


“His ‘9/11’ painting is magnificent,” Chernow said.


“You know it is very difficult to deal with tragedy artistically. If you
go to the Holocaust museum you’ll see many abstract images.


“Events like 9/11 cannot easily be depicted with realistic imagery yet
Eric did this in his painting. His work was heroic.”


I, too, knew von Schmidt, but only much more recently.


He was most significant as a visionary historian. Through his music and his
painting, he breathed vitality into events and cultural ideas and trends in
wonderfully new and creative ways.


For the last two decades he has painted prolifically. That light in his
Evergreen studio was always burning.


He spent more late nights researching and preparing for his paintings as he
did actually executing them. He did meticulous photo archival research for
his “Giants” series.


Yet his paintings are vivid and fresh and fluid with life. I would even say
they’re quite spiritual.


His “Giants of the Blues” figures are definitely spiritual.


In his “Custer’s Last Stand” and “9/11” paintings, he creates a
moment in space and time with meaning that no photographer could ever hope
to capture.

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