JONES & SCHMIDT

A Texas Romance, 1909

Notes By The Authors

TOM JONES: Back in those early days, there were four of us sharing an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In addition to Harvey and me, there was Bob Gold, who was co-owner of the Sullivan Street Playhouse and later chief factotum and general manager for our Portfolio Workshop, and Robert Benton, who was art editor of Esquire. …continue reading

HARVEY SCHMIDT: A TEXAS ROMANCE, 1909 was an attempt by four contemporary artists to evoke, through their paintings, the world of a small Texas town in an era that had preceded their own. The paintings were freely based on photographs., letters, and postcards, discovered hidden in a cigar box in the family barn by Robert Benton, and dealing entirely with a courtship between his grandfather's brother, who was the local mailman, and a young woman who came to visit her relatives in Waxahachie, Texas, in the summer of 1909. …continue reading