The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-11-23


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George Schroeder 10 said I'd rank
NTH among the; landscape painters
Of America. and s;AA' aisess a. Roca-
tello. He learned to paint while
holding down q homestead on the
Ninidoka project near Rupert,
Idaho. He lived there during the
dark days when the settlers lived on
hope and worked without knowing
whether they would succeed or have
to move of because it was too big a
project for even our Uncle Samuel
to put over.
Mr.. Schroeder is q man small Of
stature and much bent and stopped.
and there are many tasks he could
not do in competition with other
men. While on his homestead he
tried reproducing on canvas the
tints Of the sunset as he witnessed
them in the fierce heat of the desert
they were trying to conquer. He
still has his claim and the shack.
but he has discovered himself.
Even before the opening of the
World war he had discovered the
secrets Of making the canvas give
back the landscape as 1t appeared
1t every hour Of the day in either
winter or summer, and he reduced
that work to q science. Knowing
that there was q great teacher in
Italy, who was reputed to know all
Of these things, he went to him In
1914, for the purpose of taking les
sons OF q man who charges some
5000 sitting. They met and
talked and Mr.. Schroeder told the
great artist what he knew and what
he could do, and was much sur
prised at the reply, well, that is as
much as I can do. All you need
now is practice" And he went out
over Europe to practice on what was
nearest at hand. Then came the
World war and he hied for home
and Rupert. He visited Idaho's
famous scenes and made pictures for
calender companies. He a s
painted the Red Fish Lakes, the
Grand Teton, Jenney's Lake named
for our Indian girl, Jenny Lee, and
in 1921 he sat on log with Mayor
Peck of Blackfoot, and as they
looked out upon the beauties of that
scene and listened to the roar of the
rivers far up on the slope Of the
grand Teton in front of them and
across the lake., he said he had seen
the famous lakes Of America and
Europe, but nothing he had seen
surpassed Jenny's Lake.
Once when Schroeder was out on
Salmon river he stepped out upon
IN eminence and beheld flock Of
sheep in glade by the river with
some timber for a background. He
stood still and looked it all over and
noted in detail the landscape, the
animals on 1t, the colors in the sun
pet, and just kept that scene in
memory for three years and then
one day he tapped the reservoir OF
memory and put it all on canvas,
and ii you step into his studio over
The Cook Drug Store III Pocatello
you will see it on the wall among
many others that he has carried In
memory from France, from Italy,
form Stanley basin, from Jackson
Hole, from the Snake river canyon,
The Twin Falls and Shoshone Falls,
in that reservoir of memory.
1, And he does not mix the tints of
the morning with the tints Of
the evening in a picture. He
does not get the MONDAY sun trans
ferred to one side Of sunset or an
afternoon scene. In bringing out
che detail of a curve in the river he
does not forget and have the even
ing sun throw clear light on an
eastern slope like that which re-
fleets from the other shore as do
some artists who struggle with one
spot at time. He goes at it with
q master hand and makes a COM
p1ete and harmonious whole-one
scene, one moment of the day
grabbed out of the whole day, and
that is faithfully reproduced on the
uneven landscape sloping in as many
ways or hidden as may be in spots
by the timber or the cliffs of bluffs.
When we were leaving, he asked |
us to come again, and we will pass
that chance on to you. We suppose |
his studio is business house in a |
sense, and il you love nature on a !
canvass we are sure he will lay
down his easel and his brush and |
show you some of his work.
-.t-
pnucE nN MAIN TUNN