Although best known for his paintings of Arizona and California, Oscar Strobel was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1891.  One of his early art teachers was Frank Duveneck, a tutelage which Oscar considered to be his first “serious study of art”.   After attending several other art schools in Cincinnati, Strobel continued his art education in Chicago before volunteering for World War I.  During the war he served in the Army Air Force in Europe.   The experience broadened his horizons and he spent the years after the war traveling abroad.  During this time he studied interior design in Florence and spent most of this time in Berlin, Paris, and Munich.  While in Germany he studied under Frank Herrman. 

Strobel’s travels eventually landed him in Arizona in 1926.  Although excursions to other parts of the world were frequent, including many to California, he remained an Arizona resident for the rest of his life.  In a 1942 interview with Arizona Highways he explained what helped influence his decision.  “For the artist, Arizona offers great possibilities for rendering vastness, force, light, and color.”   He added that “The luminous nature of the Arizona landscape . . .brings about the accumulative power that is well worth any artist’s study and effort.”

In the 1930’s Strobel built a rambling Hacienda style estate in the Scottsdale area on McDonald Avenue. Paul Messinger, Stobel’s paper boy in Scottsdale in the 1940’s and who later went on to become a Scottsdale City Councilman and Arizona State Legislator, remembers Oscar as being a “very large, outgoing, and feisty individual with a great heart but a bit of an ornery streak.  If the newspaper I delivered had printed something he didn’t like he always made sure I knew it.”  Yet Messinger also recalls “Most older people in those days maintained their distance with children.  You were expected to be seen, but not heard and you were expected to address them as Mr. or Mrs.  But Oscar was always very talkative, and he always called me Paul and insisted that I call him Oscar. He was an early riser and I often saw him working outside his house at 6 in the morning when I delivered the paper.”

 For many of his Arizona years Strobel was well known as both a calendar artist and a mural artist.  Brown and Bigelow, an advertising firm based in Minneapolis, published calendars for several years in the 1940’s and 50’s using Strobel’s art work.   Every year the calendar had a different theme, ranging from Alaska to southwestern desert landscape to the Mississippi River.  Murals included the San Marcos Hotel and the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale along with Greyhound depots Phoenix, San Diego, and Reno.  

In 1958 Strobel was commissioned by the State of Hawaii to do a series of five paintings of Hawaiian native culture themes to commemorate Hawaii’s entry as the fiftieth state. 

Towards the end of his life Strobel was a Silver Rider in the Parada Del Sol in Scottsdale, even serving as the Grand Marshall every year from 1957 to 1965.  Today his saddle hangs on display in the Southwest Room at the Scottsdale Public Library.  Oscar Strobel died in Scottsdale in 1967.

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Oscar Strobel

Scottsdale, Arizona

1949

One of the Blue Coyote Gallery's primary objectives is to acquire biographical information about historically important Arizona artists. Background and biographical information about many of the deceased artists we represent is often very sketchy and limited at best. We are trying to acquire information before people who knew these artists personally are no longer around. 

If you knew Oscar Strobel personally, or knew someone who did, we would be grateful if you could share any biographical information, stories, or anecdotes you may have. Information can be sent via email or postal mail. We would also be glad to arrange interviews either via telephone or in person. 

Please contact Gary Fillmore at gary@bluecoyotegallery.com

 or 480-488-2334