1387
Solitude
FES Title: lunette
Alternate Titles: Solitude
[1926]
Date: 06/16/1925
Size: 28″H x 36″W
Medium: oil-on-Best
Type: illustration
Published: Williams, Ben Ames. “Solitude.” Collier’s Weekly, 5 December 1925: 24-25.
no caption
Inscription: lr: Frank E. Schoonover ’25
Annotations: en verso: lunette for heading
Exhibitions: 1926 WSFA
Comments: lunette; form 8/27/07; index; edit
Commentary: In a letter to Miss Lyon at Colliers Magazine on May 3, 1925, Schoonover wrote: “The story “Solitude” is here – The local color – the solitude itself – is wonderfully impressive. I love it for it just fits the sort of thing I have done myself.
It would be pretty fine to open the story with a picture – showing the bigness of the solitude and the smallness of the human man. Do it in the shape of a lunette.”
On the letter paper, Schoonover drew a sketch of his idea – a small man walking alone in a valley surrounded by tall cliffs. He went on to finish the letter: “This is only a suggestion. You may or may not like it at all.” (archives, correspondence)
Evidently they liked it, as they used all of his suggestions for this illustration. The size given is the canvas and the lunette measures 19.25″ by 36.” (day books)
Provenance: Sold by artist to P. Johnson, Wilmington, Delaware (November 16, 1925); Mrs. Talliaferro, Wilmington, Delaware; Mary Jo and Frank H. Ernst, Wilmington, Delaware [1963]; Mrs. Adrian N. Daniel, Jr., Wilmington, Delaware (circa 1965; private collection