Richard Alan Schmid

Schmid was born on October 5, 1934, in Chicago, Illinois. He began informal art training at age twelve through the Famous Artists correspondence course, and at eighteen entered the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he studied under William H. Mosby in the classical academic tradition. No source documents a formal degree from that program; his advanced academic recognition came later, in 2003, when the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.

Over a career spanning more than fifty solo exhibitions, Schmid built a reputation for realist portraits, landscapes, figures, and still life, painted with an emphasis on direct observation, light, and color. He received the National Arts for the Parks Award in 1988, presented by then Vice President George H. W. Bush, and in 2000 received the John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the American Society of Portrait Artists at a ceremony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Salmagundi Club's Medal of Honor. A retrospective at the Butler Institute of American Art in 2003 affirmed his museum standing, and in the early 2010s his painting of Abbotsford House, home of Sir Walter Scott, was presented to Queen Elizabeth II. He was also an influential teacher and author of instructional texts on painting technique.

Schmid was married to the painter Nancy Guzik and had three daughters. Before his death he established the Richard Schmid Foundation to steward his legacy. He died on April 18, 2021, at the age of 86, reportedly at his home in New Hampshire, where he and Guzik had long lived.

No verifiable, exact-wording critical assessment from a named critic in a major outlet could be confirmed for this profile. Institutional and peer recognition, however, is extensive and consistent: the John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement, the Salmagundi Club's Medal of Honor, an honorary doctorate from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, and a 2003 retrospective at the Butler Institute of American Art all point to a career treated by the American realist establishment as exemplary. His continuing influence is visible in the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts' 2026 exhibition of thirty-six of his paintings and its dedication of a studio in his name, evidence that his teaching and technique remain a reference point for realist painters after his death.

Schmid's documented auction high is New Preston Falls II (1989), which sold for USD 142,800 at the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction; the sale is generally dated to 2016 but the exact calendar date is not confirmed in available records. Other strong results at the same auction house include Hewick Church, North Yorkshire, England (USD 121,000, 2015) and April Roses (USD 105,300, 2014), while a work catalogued under the name Richard Alan Schmid sold for USD 46,875 at Heritage Auctions on November 17, 2014, and many smaller works have sold for a few thousand dollars. West Wind Fine Art has represented Schmid's work since 1998 and, together with Gallery 1261 in Denver, continues to handle his work in the secondary market, while the Richard Schmid Foundation stewards his archive and legacy programming.

There is no published catalogue raisonne for Schmid, and no confirmed certificate-of-authenticity program; buyers should expect provenance and attribution questions to run through West Wind Fine Art, Gallery 1261, and the Richard Schmid Foundation rather than a formal cataloguing body. Auction results vary widely by subject, size, and period, from four-figure sums for smaller works to the roughly USD 142,800 record for New Preston Falls II, so any single result should be read in the context of the specific work rather than as a market-wide benchmark. His market is best understood as a connoisseur's market: sustained by museum holdings, teaching legacy, and estate stewardship rather than by frequent, high-volume trading at the top end.