Illustrator finally getting his due: 'Nat Youngblood's Pittsburgh' opens at the Fort Pitt Museum

If you grew up in Pittsburgh in the mid-20th century, then you may be familiar with the artwork of Nat Youngblood (1916-2009), an artist whose vibrant watercolors often enlivened the covers of the Pittsburgh Press' Sunday Roto magazine during his 35-year illustration career with the newspaper.

Though Youngblood passed away in 2009, he is finally getting his due in a retrospective exhibition entitled “Nat Youngblood's Pittsburgh,” which recently opened at the Fort Pitt Museum in Point State Park.

Co-organized by Jaclyn Sternick, visitor services and events coordinator at the Fort Pitt Museum, and Michael Burke, the museum's exhibit specialist, the exhibit is in a fitting locale considering the Fort Pitt Museum houses a permanent collection of more than 15 paintings by Youngblood, many of which have been on display year-round on the museum's first floor since they were first commissioned in 1976 by the museum.

Youngblood was a longtime history buff and a witness to history itself, beginning with his service in World War II in the 155th Anti-Aircraft Battalion of the 17th Airborne Division. He received a Purple Heart after being injured in a glider accident.

As a glider pilot, Youngblood took part in Operation Varsity, a successful Allied airborne assault over the Rhine River, which was launched on March 24, 1945, toward the end of World War II.

Youngblood recorded his World War II experiences in letters, sketches and watercolors that he sent home to his mother. Creating watercolors like “Chow Truck in Münster” and an untitled illustration of an airfield on display in this exhibit, both from 1945, helped Youngblood cope with homesickness and the magnitude of war.

Following the war, he returned to his hometown of Newburg, Ind., and applied to the Scripps-Howard News Service in Pittsburgh.

His wartime portfolio landed him a job at the Pittsburgh Press in 1946, at a time when the city was known for soot and smog.

As his work for the paper entered homes throughout the region, it shed light on local history, poked fun at everyday life and envisioned a brighter future. He stayed with the Press for 35 years and retired from his post as art director in 1980.

Subjects Youngblood revisited throughout his art career include Western Pennsylvania landscapes, city scenes, historical narratives, portraits of local leaders and much more.

He primarily produced watercolor paintings but also pen and ink drawings for his work at the Pittsburgh Press. His art appeared almost weekly in the Sunday paper, making locals familiar with his distinct style. Press readers were even known to collect the magazine covers that featured his work. During Youngblood's tenure as art director of the Press, he produced cover art for more than 400 Sunday Roto and Family Magazines.

Several original works he created for these covers are on display in this exhibit, including “General Forbes … The Victor Names Fort Pitt,” which appeared on the Nov. 23, 1958, cover of Roto Magazine.

This piece, which depicts a convalescing Gen. Forbes writing a letter as he looks over a battlefield, is a perfect example of how Youngblood's work for the Press often shed light on local history.

Published for the 200th anniversary of Gen. John Forbes' capture of the Point, the piece predates another series on display Youngblood captured 10 years later, “The Forbes Expedition.”

The Forbes Expedition depicts the trials and triumphs of the British army's 1758 campaign in five oil paintings: “Troops Assembling at Fort Bedford,” “Army Train Ascending Mountain Road,” “Grant's Defeat,” “Construction of Fort Ligonier” and “Forbes at Fort Duquesne.”

The architectural firm Stotz, Hess & MacLachlan, which designed the Fort Pitt Museum, commissioned the series, but when the Fort Pitt Museum opened in 1969, only back-lit transparencies of each painting were displayed. It was not until 2002 that the actual paintings were accessioned into the museum's permanent collection.

Here, the exhibit affords a rare opportunity to see all five paintings hung together at the same time.

Other historically themed works abound, such “Siege of Fort Pitt,” (c. 1968) which depicts the fort in 1763, when Ottawa Chief Pontiac led the American Indian effort to capture British military posts in North America.

And there is the largest of Youngblood's series, “The American Pioneer.”

In 1976, on his own initiative, Youngblood proposed the idea of producing these 10 major oil paintings depicting the life of Pittsburgh citizens in 1776 for the National Bicentennial Celebration.

The Pittsburgh Press allowed him a leave of absence and later donated the 10 4-feet-by-5-feet paintings to the permanent collection of the Fort Pitt Museum.

This exhibit would not be possible without the help of Sandra Youngblood, the artist's widow, who loaned most of the pieces that are on display, in addition to those owned by the museum.

Married in 1980, the year Youngblood retired form the Pittsburgh Press, the couple split their time between homes in West Middletown, Washington County, and Corrales, N.M.

Sandra Youngblood, who has since remarried, says that Youngblood painted full time, nearly every day, up until a year before his death in 1990, producing landscapes of Western Pennsylvania and New Mexico as well as award-winning portraits of American Indians.

An Eagle Scout in his youth, Youngblood was fascinated with Native American art and culture and in addition to his peaceful landscapes and historic depictions of Revolutionary War confrontations, created many works influenced by the Southwest.

“He loved to paint big Indian oils in his retirement. It would take him a year to paint some of them.” says Sandra Youngblood, adding that the artist's fascination with American Indians began as a young boy, when members of the Sioux Indian tribe visited his Eagle Scout troop.

She says as Youngblood became better known in his later years for his Indian paintings, collectors of the genre would wonder aloud if the artist himself was of Native American descent. “We would always get ‘what tribe are you from?,' because of his name. But he was German.”

The exhibit does not include any of Youngblood's later Indian paintings, as nearly all are held in private collections, Sandra Youngblood says. “We had our own clients and they were waiting in line,” she says of these later commissioned works. “They love them and hold onto them.”

Kurt Shaw is the Tribune-Review art critic.