Historical April 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
St. Louisans have seen the name “Roscoe Misselhorn” signed to familiar sketches of paddlewheelers on the Mississippi, the Old Courthouse, and Missouri barns.
They will have the opportunity to see the full range of the artist’s work in the Roscoe Misselhorn Retrospective Exhibition, which opens in the Missouri Historical Society’s Shoenberg Portrait Gallery in the Jefferson Memorial Building in St. Louis’ Forest Park. “Misselhorn is best known for his pencil sketches of historic buildings and covered bridges, and he has achieved regional recognition for these.
But the full range of his artistic work is little understood,” said Karen M. Goering, chief curator of the history museum and Shoenberg curator of art. “This retrospective exhibition will include over 100 works that he executed between 1920 and 1985.
There are landscapes painted in oil; life studies in vivid pastels; the city and country scenes in pen and ink or pencil; and even woodcuts. “Like many commercial artists, Misselhorn’s career has ranged from designing bus passes to painting murals to drawing editorial cartoons. Sketching landmarks and out-of-theway spots in rural areas has always remained one of his favorite activities,” she said.
The exhibition will be presented in three thematic sections: the St. Louis Riverfront; Farm and Rural Scenes in Missouri; and Downtown St. Louis. Pencil sketches and woodcuts of St. Louis done in the 1920s and 1930s show the activity and diversity of the City. Along with familiar views of stately landmarks will be works entitled “Produce Row” and “Chicken Crates on Third Street.” Interspersed throughout the exhibition will be excerpts from interviews with the artist.
These will provide background information for interpretive labeling of the artworks.
The show is designed to add a historic dimension to understanding the artist’s development, starting with his student days at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, where he studied for two and one-half years. Among his classmates was Tanasko Milovich; Fred Carpenter and Delos C. Nicholson were his teachers. Misselhorn left school in 1928 to work for an advertising agency.
He returned to his hometown, Sparta, Illinois, in 1932 to open his own commercial studio.
He was, for a time, a member of a local art group, the Friday Nighters, who met weekly at the People’s Art Center.
They pooled their resources and hired lifestudy models, and many of the nude drawings in the show date from that period.
For 15 years, Misselhorn taught art for the extension school division of SIU in Sparta. Over the years, his illustrations have been used for notecards, placemats, calendars, and plaques. Several books of his sketches have been published.
The last retrospective show of Misselhorn’s work was mounted in 1955 by the St. Louis Artists’ Guild.
The 85-year-old artist still draws every day, and his studio overflows with a vast collection of his works, many of which have been selected for the history museum’s retrospective show.
The Misselhorn Retrospective may be seen through December, 1987.
Original photograph caption
“WASHINGTON TERRACE GATEWAY,” St. Louis, May, 1962, pencil sketch by Roscoe Misselhorn. Missouri Historical Society through December 1987. The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1987, page 5.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1987_04.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
