 Since Adirondack Retro acquired Darvill's Rare Prints in August of 2022, we have been working tirelessly on our New State-Of-The Art Website. We are excited to announce that it is now up and running and that our massive inventory of Antique Prints and Rare Maps are being transferred over to the new site daily. In addition to the nearly 500,000 prints found on www.DarvillsRarePrints.com, Adirondack Retro offers an eclectic selection of Antique and Vintage Advertisements along with their Limited Edition Giclee Prints. During this transition, customers will still be able to shop and make purchases on www.DarvillsRarePrints.com. Sign up for our Mailing List and receive our Adirondack Retro Newsletter. When you sign up, we will email you a coupon code for you to get 15% OFF your first order at AdirondackRetro.com. |
Genuine vintage prints of Jerome Howard Smith's Western paintings
Published in San Francisco by our founder, Fred T. Darvill, in the 1930s.
These prints are over 80 years old, not modern reproductions.
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Background: Fred T. Darvill, an Englishman who emigrated to the United States in the late 1800s, was a great fan of the American Wild West. So much so that he amassed a huge collection of original paintings and drawings from Western art legends like Charles Russell, E.A. Burbank, and Jerome Howard Smith. When Darvill's Rare Print Shop was in San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s, Mr. Darvill became good friends (and valued collector) to both Burbank and Smith. In fact, during the Depression years, Darvill kept both of the famous artists busy painting Western and Legal scenes exclusively for him with the intent of having prints made to sell in the rare print shop. To this day, Darvill's Rare Prints has famous scenes that are only available from us, as Mr. Darvill made sure to secure the rights so that nobody else could sell the same images. Mr. Darvill had hoped to live to see a museum established to honor the great Western artists. Sadly, as he approached his 90th birthday, there was still no such museum to pass on his impressive collection of Western art. Thus, in 1972 at the age of 91, he reluctantly sold his entire collection of genuine oil paintings and drawings by Russell, Burbank, and Smith. Mr. Darvill died at the age of 95 in 1976, but his love of Western art lives on through the prints he commissioned and published that are only to be found here at Darvill's. |
The condition of the prints is generally excellent. Keep in mind, however, that they are over 80 years old and though they have been stored flat and in a dark, climate-controlled environment, some may have minor corner or edge wear or browning to the extreme edges of the paper. We will always indicate any flaws that might be deemed obtrusive.
Jerome Howard Smith (1861-1941) painting "Judge Lynch" in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The painting was owned by our founder Fred T. Darvill and auctioned along with hundreds of other rare Western paintings in the early 1970s.
Jerome Howard Smith was born in Pleasant Valley, Illinois in 1861. He grew up on a farm and broke horses as a youth. In 1879 he began his western travels. He first went to Leadville, Colorado where the silver-mining boom was underway. After drifting around the West for a few years, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked in Chicago as a comic illustrator for the Rambler. From there he moved to New York City where he was on the art staff for the Judge and Leslie’s Weekly. On assignments for these publications he made regular forays into the West and did a series of “Ranch Life in the West” with Charlie Russell. Leading a peripatetic life, he was in Texas, the Dakotas, and at one time lived in San Francisco. After years of wandering over the West, he married an Indian girl and settled in British Columbia where he painted oils of his earlier observations of western life until his death on March 8, 1941.
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
ATTACKING THE STAGE COACH
Sheet size approx. 7 x 16 inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1935.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
THE RUNAWAY STAGE
Sheet size approx. 8½ x 16 inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1935.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
THE RUNAWAY STAGE
Sheet size approx. 4 ½ x 8¾ inches
(same image as above right, but smaller and the colors are not as vibrant)
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1935.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
CORRAL SHY
Sheet size approx. 8 x 16 inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1935.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
ALKALI DUST
Sheet size approx. 9½ x 16 inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1935.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
FEEDING THE TENDERFOOT
Sheet size approx. 11½ x 16 inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1935.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
THE ARIZONA ROUNDUP
Sheet size approx. 14¾ x 19¾ inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1938.
$150
(click thumbnail for enlargement)
A SIDEWINDER
Sheet size approx. 19¾ x 14¾ inches
Offset lithograph on linen/canvas textured paper, printed in 1938. Please note the "smudges" in upper left and right corners of image. These were either on the original canvas when photographed or on the printing plates. They could easily be covered by a mat when framed.
$150