Harvest Moon Sugar Cane, Hillsborough County. Watercolor, tempera, 16 by 24 inches.
Born in Georgia, Norman Borchardt grew up in Tampa, graduating with honors from Hillsborough High School in 1908. In the Fall of 1908, he entered a three-year course of study at The Art Institute of Chicago that included frequent trips home to Tampa. On June 20, 1912, Borchardt was guest of honor at Tampa’s Students’ Art Clubs annual meeting. He spoke on American art, his training at the Art Institute and exhibited some of his paintings. Borchardt’s comments were published in the Tampa Tribune, June 21, 1912. “I feel that it is a presumption for me to address such a club as this, and that I could do better by listening to your lectures. However, I know we are all students…I should have enjoyed meeting with you the past year, during your study of American Art, for it has a great fascination for me. American art possesses the qualities of originality that the art of no other country does.” Borchardt opened a studio in Lockport, Illinois (forty miles outside of Chicago) and began a career in commercial art. His first work appearing in the January 1913 issue of Redbook included four illustrations for And the Eagle Screamed. When the Students’ Art Club held its annual reception in January 1915, the Tampa Tribune mentioned contributions by the club’s own, Belle Weeden McNeer, and “Tampa Boys” Donald Blake and Norman Borchardt. The Students Art Club was a division of the Woman’s Club of Tampa, men could not be members. ‘Boys” was not used in a pejorative way; the city of Tampa was proud of these young men who had joined the ranks of illustrators in New York City. Bourchardt illustrated the frontis of the book, God’s Country and the Woman, for Doubleday & Co. and The People’s Own Park, Van Cortlandt Park, a full color cover for the Saturday Magazine of the New York Evening Post. He returned to Tampa in July to address the Tampa Ad Club on commercial art. Newspaper and magazine advertising was then vital to Florida land development. The Tampa Tribune, July 20, 1915, “Norman Borchardt, former Tampan argued pictures compel attention at a glance. To the tired man or the girl turning the pages of a magazine an illustrated advertisement makes an instant appeal. There should be something in the picture, an element that will appeal to the senses, that will make the reader study the ad in detail.” By the Spring of 1916 Borchardt was living in New York, doing special illustrations for the New York Tribune and writing theatrical criticism. When the United States entered the First World War, Borchardt attempted to join the US Aviation Corp but was rejected. Enlisting in the Canadian Royal Aviation Corp, he was nearly killed when his plane stalled 250 feet in the air. While recuperating at a Canadian hospital, in April 1919, his sketches, Amateur Night in an Army Hospital, appeared in the Sunday magazine section of the New York Times. With the Florida real-estate boom in 1925, and the need for experienced artists for newspaper illustration, Borchardt made plans to move to Miami. The hurricane of September 1926 may have dissuaded him, and he continued working in New York, doing magazine and book illustration and the Sunday Magazine of the Times. Several of his illustrations for short stories did appear in the Miami News in 1929. The White Heron, a book about the history of Florida and the Everglades, written by Borchardt’s brother Bernard and Illustrated by Norman, was published in Tampa in 1933.
Norman Borchardt, Illustration of Indian Princess Ulelah, for The White Heron, A Novel of the Glades by his brother Bernard Borchardt, Tampa, 1933.The artist finally returned to Tampa in 1935, accepting a position as director of art at the University of Tampa. One of Borchardt’s first commissions was a group of cartoons done for the Tampa Board of Trade. They are lost. When the Tampa City Guide was published in 1937, Bourchardt did the illustrations. For years Borchardt was superintendent of the Art Department of the Florida State Fair, held at the Tampa Fairgrounds. Initially thousands of entries were submitted, Bouchard insisted the works be screened and only the best chosen for display and competition. In celebration of Gasparilla, in 1952 Borchardt and Philip Shockley published an elaborate pictorial map of the Tampa Bay area depicting the history of the region. Shockley did the history, Borchardt the painting. Borchardt painted a series of five murals for the University of Tampa lobby depicting: Indian shell mound on Platt Street; Hernando Desoto and men under the spreading oak tree in Plant Park; Henry Plant and workmen building the Tampa Bay Hotel; A 1898 interior view of the Tampa Bay Hotel with guests including Teddy Roosevelt; World War II cadets at the university. Teaching classes in commercial art, book illustration and art appreciation to hundreds of students annually, Borchardt continued at the University of Tampa for over 20 years. The Tampa Tribune noted: “As a boy, he played on a clay mound across the Platt St. bridge from the famous H. B. Plant building. He learned to dance in the Dome Theater, where dances were given by the city. At his graduation from Hillsborough High in May 1908, second honor member of the class, Bourchardt delivered the first oration of the evening. His subject was Nature versus Science. The Tampa Tribune noted his talk, “the way in which he handled it was most creditable. His delivery was very easy and graceful.” The same can be said of his long career as a leading figure in Tampa art. Born: January 21,1891, Brunswick, Georgia. Died: March 9, 1975, Sandy Spring, Maryland. Education: Hillsborough High School, 1908; Art Institute of Chicago; with John W. Norton; John Vanderpoel; Art Students League with Robert Henri. Membership: Illustrators Club of New York; Freelance Art Group, N.Y.; Florida Federation of Art; Tampa Art Institute; Brush and Palette Club. Exhibits: Students’ Art Club, June 1912; Students’ Art Club, February 1914, illustrations for magazine stories and a portrait of himself, done by his teacher, John W. Norton; Tampa Photo & Art Supply Company, September 1915, with May McNeer, Helen Stewart and Lottie Watkins, watercolors and magazine covers; Students’ Art Club, Tampa Public Library, 1922, Death of the Tiger, Ichabod Crane; Society of The Four Arts, member, jury of selection, April 1938; Tampa Art Institute, October 1950; Inter-American Art Show, University of Tampa, member of jury, May 1951; Pan American Art Exhibit by Tampa artists for tour of Latin America, March 1953, judge; Tampa Realistic Artists, Davis Boulevard, Davis Island, a two-man exhibit with Charles Giles, Borchardt’s work featuring commercial art including, Kipling illustrations, etchings, pastels, oils, watercolors and pen and ink, November-December 1957; Tampa Art Institute, March 1958; Clearwater Art Group, 11th Annual juried members exhibit, March 1960, judge.
