Once in a while I take a book out of my bookcase and reread parts of it. This time it was John Canemaker's work "Paper dreams : the art & artists of Disney storyboards" (1999) in which I found many exciting sketches for Fantasia, drawn by a Robert Sterner. Canemaker notes that little is known about Sterner, except for the little info in his personnel file currently in the Disney Archives - his birth date.
A quick look around adds a little bit of info: the California Death Index shows some info that is corroborated on AskART, which shows:
Robert Joadrie Sterner was born in Arizona on July 9, 1899. By 1920 Sterner had settled in Los Angeles. He died there on November 11, 1947, aged 48. He was known in artist circles for being fashion illustrator and teacher, but his Fantasia work is not mentioned.
(Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"; City Directory; Census; Death Record.)
Just thought I would throw it in the mix...
Interesting post - I completely forgot about Sterner on Story on "Rite of Spring" until you mentioned. Well, make it fair that he isn't really well-known at all - another BIG mystery man out there - like Jack Campbell, John McManus, Art Palmer, etc.
ReplyDeleteOh, "Paper Dreams", that's a book that I'm currently trying to look out for and also Don Peri's "Working with Walt".
I recently found some tiles hand painted by Sterner. they are cartoons of WWII subjects, a nurse wearing Japanese geta with her uniform, etc. They were done by someone who knew how to draw and in illustrator style.
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