Remington Schuyler was born July 8, 1884 in Buffalo, New York. His mother was Sarah Anna "Hidee" Remington, whose father was a nephew of the artist Frederic Remington. Her hometown was Buffalo, to which she returned to be with her family during childbirth. The Schuyler family lived in St Louis, Missouri, at 2820 Locust Street. His father was William Schuyler of Missouri, a public school teacher. Remington was the middle born of their three children, all of whom were sons.
On October 12, 1897 his mother died in Buffalo at the age of forty-one after complications from a lost pregnancy.
After graduating McKinley High school, where his father was Principal, he studied art at Washington University in St. Louis. He received a scholarship to study at the National Academy in Rome and the Academie Julian in Paris. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York with the influential draftsman, George Bridgman. In 1906 he studied with Howard Pyle in Wilmington Delaware.
On January 26, 1907 he married Anna Louise Ponder from Milton, Delaware. They left Wilmington and moved to 143 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY. They had one child, a daughter, who was named Hidee after his mother's nickname.
Thanks to his association with Howard Pyle his first published illustration appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1906. He was soon working regularly for The Saturday Evening Post, Pearson's, and Munsey's Magazine.
In 1916 they moved to 76 Huguenot Street, New Rochelle, NY, which was a prestigious community with neighbors such as J.C. & F.X. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell. New Rochelle had also been the home of his recently deceased namesake, Frederick Remington.
On September 12, 1918 he reported for draft registration at the age of 34. His employer was listed as the U.S. Shipping Board of 345 East 33rd Street, Manhattan, NYC, which hired him to design complex color schemes for ships to disorient torpedo attacks.
After the Great war he received countless assignments for Boy's Life. He was active in the Boy Scouts for over thirty years and even wrote some of the official rules for earning merit badges.
He illustrated many children's adventure books and was an expert on the history of Native Americans.
During the 1920s he sold interior story illustrations to Life, St. Nicholas, and The Century. He also painted cover illustrations for pulp magazines, such as Frontier Stories, Short Stories, and West.
In 1929 he moved to 80 Wright Street in Westport, Connecticut, which he bought for $8,000.
Although most pulp artists yearned to work their way up to the slicks, Remington Schuyler was among the few artists that found work with pulp magazines out of resourcefulness during the Great Depression. He sold freelance pulp covers to Wild West Weekly, Battle Stories, and Short Stories.
On September 25, 1931 he was granted an uncontested divorce from his wife on the grounds that she had deserted him four years earlier.
On December 15, 1932 the body of a twelve year old Junior High School student, Robert Glover, was found hung by his own belt in the closet doorway of the room he occupied in the home of Remington Schuyler. The deceased was an usually advanced student. Police expressed the opinion that over-study had caused the boy to commit suicide. He was residing with the artist while his mother attended a White House conference with President Herbert Hoover on child health.
In 1933 he married his second wife, Marjorie Lamb. Their first child, Remington Jr, was born in 1934 and their second child, Peter, was born in 1936.
During the 1930s he worked as a muralist for the WPA artist's program in Connecticut. Pulp artists George Avison and Delos Palmer also worked on mural projects for this government program.
In December of 1939 his second wife Marjorie died.
In 1941 he married Winnefred Clemmons. They had one son, Jonathan, who was born in December 1942. Sometime during WWII his third wife left with their son. Their marriage was annulled.
In December of 1946 he married is forth wife, Mimi Deutchman.
In 1948 he moved to Marshall, Missouri, where he taught art classes as an Associate Professor at Missouri Valley College for six years.
In March of 1954 his fourth marriage ended in divorce.
Remington Schuyler died of cancer in a Christian Science facility in St. Louis Missouri, at the age of seventy-one on November 11, 1955.
© David Saunders 2009 |
