For the past several years, The Harvey Dunn Society (formed to honor the work of wonderful artist Harvey Dunn) has held a plein air event at the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota. During this event artists gather to paint the prairie landscape that so inspired both Dunn and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Visitors can see the artists work in action and it’s followed by a “wet paint” sale where you can buy the work painted during the weekend. If you visit the Ingalls Homestead at other times you will find a small collection of these works from previous years on display. This year’s event will be held August 12, 13, and 14, 2011. I haven’t made it during the event yet, but if you’re on your way to South Dakota, be sure to attend and there will be another chance next year.
(You may have to rotate the image in the PDF I can’t seem to get it to default to a vertical orientation.)
I always introduce Harvey Dunn in Iowa as South Dakota’s answer to Grant Wood. Like Wood, Dunn’s paintings were of the Regionalist style and mostly focused on his former prairie home. However, in the rest of the world he is better known for his war paintings (he was one of just 6 artists officially chosen by the United States government to document World War I), his magazine and to a lesser extent book illustrations (which were prolific), and his school for artists which he ran from his New Jersey home. Every summer Dunn would return to the De Smet/Manchester area for a visit and sketch. After the first year his east coast born wife would go to Europe instead while he headed west. Today you can view Dunn’s paintings at the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings, South Dakota which was founded largely on the strength of his donation of his prairie works. I highly recommend any Laura fan stop because his work is incredible enough in facsimile but is absolutely wonderful in person. Dunn’s two Laura Ingalls Wilder connections are that he was Grace’s nephew by marriage and that Aubrey Sherwood of the De Smet News worked to promote Dunn and his connection to the area almost as hard as he did Laura. In fact, it was a display of Dunn’s work in De Smet that Sherwood helped arrange and the incredible response to it (people drove in from as far as Chicago to see it) that encouraged Dunn to make the donation that started the art museum.
Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio
Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, Vice-President and Membership Chair