Portrait of Freeman Schoolcraft

Edgar Miller
c. 1930
Oil on canvas
L 91, W 76 cm

Miller painted dozens of realistic, non-abstracted portraits of friends and clients throughout his lifetime. This portrait, of fellow artist and sculptor Freeman Schoolcraft, likely dates from the late 1920s or early '30s, though no date is provided. Schoolcraft was purportedly discovered by Lorado Taft while in high school in Jackson, Michigan, and was encouraged to come study under him in Chicago. He became known as a versatile modernist sculptor of the New Deal era and his work was similar to that of Miller's and other American modernists.

In Miller's own notes, however, an even more incredible connection is discovered. According to Miller, Schoolcraft was a "descendant of my grandfather's associate... who gave Longfellow the historical background for his [Song of] Hiawatha." Miller also made a portrait of Freeman's wife at the time. It's unclear why both portraits never became the property of the Schoolcrafts. Perhaps they were simply friends of Millers and these portraits he did of them were for practice. What is undeniable is that Miller possessed an uncanny talent to switch gears and create art in nearly every style one could image, from figurative abstraction to graphic expressionism to even realistic portraiture.