Posts by Ray Cavanaugh

‘The Sagebrush Rembrandt’

‘The Sagebrush Rembrandt’

November 18, 2017 | by

He hailed from West Virginia, received most of his training in Europe, and lived most of his life in New York City. But William R. Leigh is best known for his portrayals of the West – a region he didn’t explore until he was about 40 years old. Eventually, however, his became so connected with the West that he was dubbed the “Sagebrush Rembrandt.” Leigh was born September 23, 1866, to a family whose once-valuable estate had just been destroyed by Civil War-related carnage and looting. He claimed to have descended from both Sir Walter Raleigh and Pocahontas. Though those
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Making a Life’s Work from One Trip

Making a Life’s Work from One Trip

November 19, 2016 | by

One of the earliest white artists to portray life in the West, Alfred Jacob Miller had no idea he was headed that way, until an unexpected 1837 encounter with a Scotsman, who hired him to document the trip through illustrations. Their ensuing journey was Miller’s only westward travel. However, he found so much inspiration and made so many sketches from that one journey that it sustained commissions for the rest of his life. Miller, who made a career out of one trip, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 1810, the first of nine children in a family of comfortable
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Realistic Paintings, Idealized Subjects

Realistic Paintings, Idealized Subjects

July 20, 2015 | by

Though France has produced many famous artists, one typically does not think of a French native devoting a distinguished artistic career to the depiction of Native Americans. But such was the case with François Henri Farny (later Anglicized to Henry Farny), who painted a proud picture of a Native American race that already was on the decline. Born in the Alsace region of France on July 15, 1847, Farny was the third child in a Protestant family that sought to escape an atmosphere of political turmoil and religious oppression. Henry Farny The Song of the Talking Wire (1904) Oil 22″x40″
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Larger Than Life

Larger Than Life

July 22, 2014 | by

Like no other artist, German-born painter Albert Bierstadt portrayed the unspoiled grandeur of the 19th-century American West. He was known for large canvases, heavy luminosity, towering trees, and gargantuan mountains, while humans and horses were made to look even tinier in comparison. Bierstadt was not the first artist to depict the American West, but the vivid intensity of his work made him, for some time, the preeminent artist of the Western genre. Albert Bierstadt Indians Spear Fishing Oil 19.25″ x 29.25″ Albert Bierstadt Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains Oil 72″ by 120″
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