Henry Jerome Schile

1829-1901 American

Crude yet spirited American immigrant lithographs

Henry Jerome Schile was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1851. Henry Schile’s work is described by Harry T. Peters in America on Stone as: Though often German in source or character, often bearing titles in foreign languages, for the convenience of immigrants, and invariably and outrageously crude in conception, composition, drawing, and lithography, Schile’s prints are undoubtedly American in spirit, because they so vividly represent the ‘melting pot’ from which they came and for which they were made. … They did an extremely large quantity, all folios. I have never seen a small print by them, which is quite unique. Most of Schile’s prints are on heavy black paper. But they appear on all types of paper from the thinnest to the very thickest. The coloring is so crude in many that it beggars description. When asked who made the best once, I declined to answer, but replied that quite surely Schile made the worst. Yet in spite of that they have real spirit of lithography.”

Artworks by this artist (114 total)