Arthur Roy Mitchell Biography
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The Early Years
Arthur Roy Mitchell was born on December 18,1889 in an adobe house on his parent’s homestead just west of Trinidad, Colorado under the southwestern mesas of the Raton Mountains. After several years, the family moved to town and Mitchell grew to young manhood just four blocks from the Old Santa Fe Trail that was outmoded by the railroad just a few years before.
He grew up with a dilemma: he wanted to be a cowboy but he found himself sketching everything he could with a furious determination. At 17 years of age he went to work for the famous A6 Outfit, the Adams Cattle Company of Vermejo Park, New Mexico 40 miles south of Trinidad. He wrestled bawling calves to the ground for branding during Spring and Fall roundups finding time for for quick sketches of horses straining, cattle balking, and men sprawling when they were bucked off their horses. Among his personal papers was found a carefully drawn portrait of Thad Porter, the A6 ranch foreman. Between roundups, he hired out to neighbors and ranching friends as a general ranch hand. As he matured, he weaned himself away from his cowboy dream, but he never forgot it. |
Mitchell Leaves Trinidad for the Pacific Northwest
In 1912 Mitchell became the advertising and circulation manager for the Chronicle News where he also continued to provide cartoons for local newspapers. In 1913 Mitchell said he was restless and needed to do something more, so he took a job with an advertising agency in Boise, Idaho as a cartoonist. He worked in Idaho for several years, all the while taking art and drawing classes whenever and wherever he could. In 1917 Mitchell joined the army and was stationed in Washington at Camp Lewis. Mitchell was given the job of Drill Sargent and then continued on to officer’s training in 1918. After the end of the World War I Mitchell took a job at the Seattle Post-Intelligence. He had spent more than a decade in the Pacific Northwest and all the while he studied and drew as often as he could, most notably he studied the art of C.M. Russell.
While working for the papers, Mitchell had seen and even sold some of the advertising art of California artist Harold Von Schmidt. The two artists soon became friends and upon hearing that Von Schmidt was leaving to study at the Grand Central School of Art in New York with teacher Harvey Dunn, Mitchell decided he would do the same.
While working for the papers, Mitchell had seen and even sold some of the advertising art of California artist Harold Von Schmidt. The two artists soon became friends and upon hearing that Von Schmidt was leaving to study at the Grand Central School of Art in New York with teacher Harvey Dunn, Mitchell decided he would do the same.
Mitchell served as Drill Sargent
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An example of Mitchell's political illustration
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Mitchell moves to New York to study at the Grand Central School of Art
Mitchell, shown in the stripe shirt above, traveled the Southwest and visited cattle ranches and Indian reservations throughout his life.
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In the fall of 1925 Mitchell sold anything of value he had and took a train bound for New York City where he enrolled in the Grand Central Art School, located on the top floor of the Grand Central Station. There he studied under artist and teacher Harvey Dunn. New York City in 1925 was smack in the middle of the Roaring Twenties with prohibition, speakeasies, flappers and the Charleston. Its dense population, busy streets and packed skyline was a far cry from the small western, mountain town where Mitchell grew up.
Harvey Dunn was a demanding teacher and he knew he had two westerners in his class–men like himself, who had lived in the West, obviously loved the West and had been cowboys–Arthur Mitchell and Harold Von Schmidt. Dunn, Mitchell and Von Schmidt had an immediate kinship and became friends for life. During many summers, Mitchell came home to Trinidad to paint, staying at his sister's ranch and often invited Dunn and Von Schmidt to come along on trips throughout Colorado and the Southwest. The last letter Harvey Dunn wrote on his death bed was to Arthur Roy Mitchell. Mitchell studied at the Grand Central School with Dunn until 1927 when Dunn moved his classes to his own studio located in New Jersey. Mitchell immediately moved from Manhattan into a remodeled barn and studio in Leonia, New Jersey just down the street from Dunn, where he would live and paint for many years. |
Mitchell reigns over the Western Pulp
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In January of 1927 Mitchell sold several paintings for the covers of Cowboy Stories magazine and Northwest Stories.
Harvey Dunn gave advice to his student and friend, Arthur Mitchell, when he said "When they ask you what a picture is for," he said , "tell them, 'for sale!' " Mitchell was well aware that fine art painters all over the country were going hungry and his intimate knowledge of real cowboys and horses, along with his skillful sketching made finding work as a western pulp cover artist a natural fit. Mitchell found success painting cover art for many western and weekly magazines during the 1920s through the 1940s. Known for his cowboy covers that included accurate details of western gear, colorful action scenes as well as his superior anatomy of the horse. It was not uncommon for Mitchell to have multiple covers on view at news stands all over the country. He often shared the news stands with his teacher Harvey Dunn as well as many of his artist friends such as Nick Eggenhoffer, Robert Lougheed and Harold Von Schmidt. By the latter part of the 1930s Mitchell had begun to paint full composition paintings with backgrounds, foregrounds, skies and well placed figures. In 1935 Mitchell began working in the field of book jacket art. Mitchell established a relationship with the Houghton Mifflin Company and created book covers for The Spur of Time, The Spider Web Trail and The End of Black Jack, a story of the notorious train robber and bandit, Thomas (Black Jack) Ketchum. 
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Cowboys were Mitchell's main subject but he also painted scenes of rural life and western landscapes for the covers of magazines like The American Legion.
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Mitchell returns to Trinidad permanently
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By the start of World War II, Mitchell tired of the crowded East Coast and the stubborn new editors of the pulps, decided to shut down his painting career in the East and return home to Trinidad to help raise cattle on his sister Tot's ranch. Mitchell was also diagnosed with cancer and felt he may not have much time left. Mitchell produced many paintings during his three years on the ranch, many are of the beautiful Stonewall area of Colorado, where the ranch was located. In 1945 at the end of the war, Mitchell's sister and brother in-law decided to sell their ranch and move to Denver. Around that time Mitchell was asked by the president of Trinidad State Junior College if he would consider teaching art classes. In 1944 Mitchell agreed to a two year teaching career but ended up teaching until 1958. Many of Mitchell's students went on to become successful artists, photographers and teachers. One of Mitchell's students Thomas Barnett, who went on to study art in Paris, said of Mitchell "He was elite in the Jefferson vein. He loved the Southwestern landscape and the Western culture. He loved art, and he loved to paint; this is what he taught. He taught me to love art, to paint, and to appreciate the Western culture, the adobe, the Indian, and the cowboy."
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Mitchell teaching art at Trinidad State Junior College
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Mitchell the historian and preservationist
In 1959, Mitchell designed the official "Rush to the Rockies" emblem commemorating the 1859 Colorado gold rush centered around Cripple Creek in the Rocky Mountains.
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Mitchell's love of history led him to yet another role as a local preservationist. In 1955, hearing that the first house built in Trinidad, the adobe Baca house, was for sale and could possibly be demolished and turned into a gas station he jumped into action. Mitchell wrote "If it is possible for a house filled with history and nostalgia to get right in the middle of an old man's life and cause him to do things he ought not to do, that is the case with the Baca house." Mitchell and several friends quickly purchased the building and he petitioned the City to preserve it and create a museum. The City agreed but only if Mitchell would come on as curator. Mitchell also donated a large collection of western memorabilia, personal photographs of the Southwest from 1910 on, historical guns he used as props for his paintings, and historical documents he had collected and cherished for many years. He also was crucial in adding the Bloom Mansion to the now named Pioneer Museum. Mitchell stayed on as curator and historian for the Trinidad Historic District until 1975, just two years before his death.
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Mitchell's Landscapes
Mitchell painted landscapes throughout his lifetime. Many of the landscapes in the museum do not have a date attributed to them but some do. Some were painted during his summer trips back to the West during the 1920s -1940s and some were painted after he moved back permanently to Trinidad in 1945. Adobes, horses and cattle are often seen and the locations are as varied as the Western landscape of mountains, mesas and high deserts that are the West and Southwest. Mitchell was a prolific landscape painter and his use of color in either subtle, or dramatic vibrant hues, reflects his artistic ability not only as an illustrator, but as an accomplished fine artist. The adobe structure was also a favorite subject, sometimes standing alone in a vast arid landscape and sometimes with horses tied to a rail or chickens scattered beneath.
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Awards, Honors and Collections
In 1972, Mitchell was named an honorary member of Cowboy Artists of America.
Founded in 1965, in Sedona by artists Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton and George Phippen, the Cowboy Artists of America had a mission: To perpetuate the memory and culture of the Old West as typified by the late Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, and others; to insure authentic representations of the life of the West, as it was and is; to maintain standards of quality in contemporary Western art; to help guide collectors of Western art; to give mutual assistance in protection of artists’ rights; to conduct a trail ride and camp-out in some locality of special interest once a year; and to hold an annual joint exhibition of the works of active members.
In 1973, Mitchell was inducted into the National Academy of Western Art at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame
In 1973, the National Academy of Western Art (NAWA) was organized to showcase work in the tradition of artists such as Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington. Arthur Mitchell was one of the original inductees.
In 1974, Mitchell received the Honorary Trustees Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as "the man who has done the most for Southwest history" through his paintings. The museum is now called the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum to reflect its mission to: Preserve and interpret the evolving history and cultures of the American West for the education and enrichment of its diverse audiences of adults and children.
The Harmsen Collection -Denver Art Museum
Bill and Dorothy Harmsen, owners of the Jolly Rancher candy company, spent 30 years driving a bus across the American West collecting and purchasing western art, amassing a 3,500-piece collection of paintings, Navajo rugs, baskets, jewelry, ceramics and sculptures. In 2001, the Harmsens donated more than 3,000 artworks and artifacts, including paintings, textiles and sculpture, to the Denver Art Museum, where Dorothy Harmsen once served as a board member. The donation led just months later to the establishment of the Denver Art Museum’s Institute of Western American Art. In the Denver Art Museum's publication, Western Passages: How Candy Built a Colorado Treasure, they note how the Harmsens met with Mitchell in a Trinidad bar and purchased several paintings as well as a Navajo rug. Mitchell, known for not willingly selling his art work, stormed out of the bar but later returned and agreed to their offers. Mitchell, the lifelong bachelor, called his paintings "my children" and rarely sold paintings but did give a few to friends and co-workers when he saw fit.
Founded in 1965, in Sedona by artists Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton and George Phippen, the Cowboy Artists of America had a mission: To perpetuate the memory and culture of the Old West as typified by the late Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, and others; to insure authentic representations of the life of the West, as it was and is; to maintain standards of quality in contemporary Western art; to help guide collectors of Western art; to give mutual assistance in protection of artists’ rights; to conduct a trail ride and camp-out in some locality of special interest once a year; and to hold an annual joint exhibition of the works of active members.
In 1973, Mitchell was inducted into the National Academy of Western Art at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame
In 1973, the National Academy of Western Art (NAWA) was organized to showcase work in the tradition of artists such as Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington. Arthur Mitchell was one of the original inductees.
In 1974, Mitchell received the Honorary Trustees Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as "the man who has done the most for Southwest history" through his paintings. The museum is now called the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum to reflect its mission to: Preserve and interpret the evolving history and cultures of the American West for the education and enrichment of its diverse audiences of adults and children.
The Harmsen Collection -Denver Art Museum
Bill and Dorothy Harmsen, owners of the Jolly Rancher candy company, spent 30 years driving a bus across the American West collecting and purchasing western art, amassing a 3,500-piece collection of paintings, Navajo rugs, baskets, jewelry, ceramics and sculptures. In 2001, the Harmsens donated more than 3,000 artworks and artifacts, including paintings, textiles and sculpture, to the Denver Art Museum, where Dorothy Harmsen once served as a board member. The donation led just months later to the establishment of the Denver Art Museum’s Institute of Western American Art. In the Denver Art Museum's publication, Western Passages: How Candy Built a Colorado Treasure, they note how the Harmsens met with Mitchell in a Trinidad bar and purchased several paintings as well as a Navajo rug. Mitchell, known for not willingly selling his art work, stormed out of the bar but later returned and agreed to their offers. Mitchell, the lifelong bachelor, called his paintings "my children" and rarely sold paintings but did give a few to friends and co-workers when he saw fit.
Photo National Cowboy Museum
National Academy of Western Art
A.R. Mitchell, photo center, at the awards ceremony 1973 National Academy of Western Art. |
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Mitchell's Western Legacy
Mitchell standing outside of the Historic, Felipe Baca, adobe house
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In 1975 at the age of 86, Mitchell moved to Denver to be close to his sister, where he died two years later and is interred. Mitchell's sister, Ethel "Tot" Erickson, laid the groundwork for opening the museum in his honor, completing the task only a year before her own passing.
Mitchell once summed up his legacy, accordingly: "You look over the back trail, and you see the fine friends you've made, and you see you've managed to make a living doing something you really loved; so how could anyone ask for more?" Arthur Roy Mitchell wore many hats, as an accomplished illustrator, fine artist, art teacher, historian and preservationist, his vision and knowledge of the West has touched many lives and many places throughout the West and Southwest. |
