The Art of Harvey Dunn (1884 - 1952)

Harvey Dunn was Born in Manchester, South Dakota March 8, 1884. He studied at the the Chicago Art Institute and the Howard Pyle School of Illustration, and was a contemporary and classmate there with N.C. Wyeth.

Dunn was selected by the War Department as one of eight artists during World War 1, to cover the war as an illustrator. He along with the others, were commissioned as Captains, and given freedom to pretty much go where they pleased and paint what they saw. He has created some really powerful images of soldiers during the War. While he did paint commercial illustrations during his career, his work during the war was to capture history, and they convey the human element of the struggle. Many of these paintings are now held at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

When you see his paintings, you can just tell they are hammered out with skill. The paint is thrown about without a lot of smooth blending, but at the same time, the pictures are nailed in terms of draftsmanship. In very few, perfectly placed strokes he tells the story.

A colorful character, he was also a great teacher of painti ng. And he had a way of speaking and inspiring his students in a straightforward, plain spoken way that made him very popular.

There is a book now out of print called "Where your Heart is: The Story of Harvey Dunn", by Robert F. Karolevitz where I found this information. Also if you can find it, there is a printed collection of notes by M. Talyor, called "An Evening in the Classroom". There is also a large collection of his works at South Dakota State University, though I haven't been there yet.

South Dakota Art Museum

Great Dunn Quotes

I wrote a paper about Harvey Dunn in college. These are a few of the highlights. I feel the world is terribly short on knowledge of this great painter and teacher.

"The only thing that's true about anything is the spirit of it! And if we get that and miss a lot of other things, we'll be telling more of the truth about it than if we got all the facts and not the spirit."

On one occasion a woman raising funds for young artists approached Harvey Dunn at a social event. When he refused to contribute, she asked "Don't you believe in encouraging our young artists?" "No!" he boomed back, "I believe in discouraging them all I can! Because if I can discourage them it will save them from floudering about ten years of their lives before finding out they are in the wrong profession. The real ones can't be discouraged!" (Karolevitz pg. 10)

"I wish you would do something wrong, not because you don't know any better but just to be violent... you've got to raise a little hell on your canvas and do a lot of awfully crude things before you get down to doing something really fine."

"A man of mediocre talent but who is furiously driven will get somewhere... he who doesn't desire deeply isn't hurt much when he fails... I expect you to do more than you are capable of doing..." (Karolevitz pg. 93)

"The more you worked with it the farther you got from it. Someone came in and said, "That's better." And you probably looked at it and thought, 'Yes, I think that is better.' And so on. Well let me tell you, if a painting just continues to be better, its no damn good!" (Taylor pg. 12)

"A picture that is 'fixed up' is never fixed. Its somehow got to be good to start with." (Taylor pg. 26)