The complete Harvey Dunn collection is on display this summer at the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings.
Harvey Dunn was a South Dakota artist, born in 1884 to homesteaders near Manchester.
Jodi Lundgren is the exhibition curator at the museum. She said Dunn attended South Dakota State University in Brookings until a professor recognized his talent. The professor convinced Dunn to study at the Art Institution of Chicago.
“I don’t know that he especially felt like he fit in there at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Lundgren said. “There was a lot more urban artists so he always kind of had this homesteader work-hard farm boy thing that was in friction with the art world.”
Howard Pyle invited Dunn to study with him on the East Coast where Dunn turned his sights to illustration.
During World War I, Dunn was drafted into the armed expeditionary forces as a war artist. His oil paintings during this period depicted soldiers and the home front.
Dunn also painted homesteader scenes of the prairie for his friends and family back home. About 145 of Dunn’s works found their way to the South Dakota Art Museum.
The full collection called “ALL DUNN” is on display through October 21st at the museum. Admission and parking are free.