Harry Anthony DeYoung was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 5, 1893. He was a landscape, figure, genre, and portrait painter, muralist, draftsman and teacher. He studied with Edward John Lake and John W. Norton at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and taught art classes for children in Chicago from 1914-1916. He was an honor student in 1917 at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with F. de Forrest Schook and John Warner Norton.

DeYoung served as a sergeant in the quartermaster corps during the last two years of World War I, 1917-1918. Back in Chicago following the War, he was active in teaching, as well as painting. In 1922, he was an assistant instructor at Bailey's Harbor Summer School of Art, Michigan; in 1923-1924, director of the Glenwood School of Landscape Painting, Illinois; director of the Midwest Summer School of Art, Paw Paw, Michigan, in 1924-1929; and instructor at the National Academy of Art, Chicago, 1927-1928.

After coming to San Antonio for the Edgar B. Davis Art Competition, DeYoung founded the DeYoung Art School there in 1928. Over the years before settling in Texas, he conducted a summer painting camp at Fort Davis and plein-air classes in Texas at Port Isabel, Eagle Pass, Abilene, Brownwood, and Boerne, as well as in New Mexico, and Monterrey, Mexico. At Sul Ross State Teachers College, Alpine, he became director of the Summer School of Art in 1940. DeYoung taught summer classes in Brownwood and tri-monthly classes in Brownsville. His murals include those at the St. Anthony Hotel, San Antonio, that were subsequently destroyed; and depictions of basket-maker Indians in West Texas, at the Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio.

After a paralyzing stroke in 1942 resulted in his hospitalization in Waco, the artist learned to paint with his left hand, continuing his career in art for another fourteen years before his death in 1956 in Waco. Harry DeYoung died on January 9, 1956, and is buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio.

Some of the artist's awards include the Fine Arts Building Purchase Prize of $500 at the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1925; and honorable mention in landscape painting at the American Artists Exhibition of Chicago. In 1927 he received honorable mention at the Chicago Galleries Association. In the Edgar B. Davis Competitive Exhibition in San Antonio in 1928 he won the member prize of $200.

DeYoung was a member of the All-Illinois Society of Artists; Chicago Galleries Association; Chicago Painters and Sculptors Association; San Antonio Art League; Society of Texas Artists; Texas Federated Art Association; Texas Fine Arts Association; and Villita Street Gallery, San Antonio.

DeYoung's portraits of notables including Davey Crockett are in the collection of The Alamo in San Antonio. Other San Antonio collections holding his paintings are the Witte Museum; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum; Brackenridge High School; the St. Anthony Hotel; and San Antonio Art League (his painting, "Cinchin' Up". De Young's work is also found at the Historical House Museum, Boerne; Brownsville Art League Museum; Fort Davis High School; Torch Energy Advisors, Inc., Houston; Moore Collection, Los Angeles, California; Harold Swift Collection and Fenger High School, Chicago; Gary High School, Indiana; Hammond High School, Indiana; Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital, El Dorado, Kansas; and Lincoln High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Harold DeYoung's exhibitions include:

Art Institute of Chicago, American Artists Exhibition, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Source:
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/DD/fde17.html
John and Deborah Powers, "Texas Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists"

HARRY ANTHONY DEYOUNG (1893-1956)

Harry Anthony De Young, artist, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 5, 1893. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was an honor student, and at the University of Illinois under John W. Norton and Edward Lake. He served as a sergeant in the quartermaster corps in World War I. For a time he taught at the Academy of Art in Chicago and was the director of the Midwest Summer School of Art at Paw Paw Lake, Michigan. He also taught at Bailey's Harbor (Wisconsin) School of Art and was director of the Glen Wood School of Landscape Painting in Illinois.

In Texas the artist founded and directed the De Young Painting Camp in the Davis Mountains. Recognition of his work in 1925 won him the Fine Arts Building Purchase Prize of $500 at the Art Institute of Chicago and honorable mention in landscape painting at the American Artists Exhibition of Chicago. In 1927 he received honorable mention at the Chicago Galleries Association. In the Edgar B. Davis Competitive Exhibition in San Antonio in 1928 he won the member prize of $200.

A mural representing the Basket Maker Indians of West Texas, painted as a Public Works Administration project, is owned by the Witte Museum, San Antonio. Cinchin' Up is part of the San Antonio Art League collection. Among other pictures of Texas subjects are De Young's portraits of David Crockett and James Bonham, which hang in the Alamo. Some of his other works are in the Chicago and Gary, Indiana, public schools, in Fort Davis, Texas, and in Brackenridge High School, in San Antonio. In 1942, at the height of his career, De Young suffered paralysis of his right side. He died in Waco on January 9, 1956, and was survived by his wife and daughter.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1893, Born in Chicago, Illinois
Studies at University of Illinois, Urbana
1927-28, Instructor, National Academy of Art, Chicago, Illinois
1928, Settles in San Antonio and establishes De Young Art School
1940, Director of Summer School of Art, Sul Ross State Teachers College, Alpine, Texas
1956, Dies in Waco, Texas

Selected Exhibitions

1929, Edgar B. Davis Competition, San Antonio, Texas
1930, 1933-37, Annual Texas Artists Exhibition, Fort Worth, Texas
1931, Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin, Texas
1932, 1934, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1933-35, San Antonio Local Artists Annual Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas
1986, Texas Seen/Texas Made, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas
1990, Looking at the Land: Early Texas Painters, 1850-1950, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas

Selected Public Collections

Historical House Museum, Boerne
Torch Collection, Torch Energy Advisors, Inc., Houston
The Alamo, San Antonio
Witte Museum, San Antonio
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio
Moore Collection, Los Angeles

The following biography was researched and written by Richard Plumly, Fine Arts of Texas, Inc., San Antonio, Texas


Born in Chicago, Illinois, Harry Anthony DeYoung (1893-1956) became a noted impressionist landscape painter of Illinois and Texas. After WWI he also painted coastal scenes and a mural for the Witte Museum in San Antonio depicting West Texas Indians.

DeYoung studied art at the University of Illinois under Edward Lake and Fabiens Kelly and at the Art Institute of Chicago under F. De Forrest Schook, John W. Norton and others and was an honor student while at the Art Institute.

During his Chicago years of the teens and 1920s, DeYoung painted, taught & exhibited his works, winning prizes in 1917 and 1925.

DeYoung moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1928, where he continued painting in the impressionist style, mostly painting landscapes and coastal scenes. He additionally taught art establishing the DeYoung Art School in San Antonio and taught summer classes in Brownsville, TX & Alpine, TX. He continued to be an active exhibitor winning honorable mention in 1927 at the prestigious Edgar B. Davis national competition at the Witte Museum.

DeYoung's works are found in numerous public and private collections.

Harry Anthony DeYoung was born in Chicago in 1893. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois. A veteran of World War I, he served as a sergeant in the quartermaster corps. He taught at various art schools throughout the United States, making a name for himself by regularly winning art prizes.

After suffering a nervous breakdown at age thirty-five, DeYoung moved to Texas hoping for better health for both he and his daughter. The Witte Museum and the St. Anthony Hotel both house murals by the artist. The Alamo hangs a painting of Davy Crockett, among other portraits of historical Texans.

He had a stroke shortly before turning fifty in 1942, resulting in the loss of the use of his painting hand. He learned to paint with the opposite hand and continued to create left-handed paintings for the remainder of his life.

Harry Anthony DeYoung passed in Waco, Texas in 1956.