Painting of the Day, January 28, 2012

By Donna Poulton

Zanes Grey’s most popular and well-known book, Riders of the Purple Sage, was published in 1912. The book was made into films five times starting in 1918 with the last version starring Ed Harris in 1996.  Similarly, the book has never been out of print with dozens of re-prints. Book covers for many of the editions were painted by popular illustrators of the time.  Among the most interesting are the covers by Douglas Duer (1887-1964) who studied with William Merritt Chase and Howard Pyle, and Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), who illustrated many books including The Oregon Trail.

Credit: E-bayCredit: E-bayCredit: davidrecommendsCredit: abebooks

Painting of the Day, January 7, 2012

By Donna Poulton

Zane Grey “had the knack of tying his characters into the land, and the land into the story. There were other Western writers who had fast and furious action, but Zane Grey was the one who could make the action not only convincing but inevitable, and somehow you got the impression that the bigness of the country generated a bigness of character.” -- Earl Stanley Gardner

Credit: ebay.comTo accompany the expansive stories of the west penned by Grey, his publisher insisted on using the best illustrators working at the time. Herbert Buck Dunton, a popular artist and illustrator, was hired to illustrate Wanderer of the Wasteland, published in 1923. The hard cover, book jacket, a frontispiece and two illustrations were included by Dunton. W. Herbert  “Buck” Dunton was a successful illustrator working for Scribner’s, Harper’s, as well as for Zane Grey. He was a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists and eventually gave up illustrating to concentrate on easel painting.

Credit: ebay.comCredit: ebay.coThe book was made into a movie by Paramount; it was their first feature length technicolor film.  This poster, by an unknown illustrator, emphasized the color and drama in both the book and the film.

Credit: moviepostershop.comYou may also want to browse through previous posts:

Painting of the Day, November 27, 2011

Painting of the Day, November 3, 2011

Zane Grey's Illustrators: Lillian Wilhelm Smith

Painting of the Day, November 17, 2011

By Donna Poulton

After being hired by the Saturday Evening Post, in 1919, to illustrate several articles with Western themes, William H. D. Koerner threw all of his interest and considerable talent into learning everything possible about the West.  He made numerous trips to Montana to study the details of ranch and mountain life and the mannerisms of the lively personalities that populated the region. Over eighteen hundred of his images were featured in the most popular magazines of the day and he illustrated for authors such as Zane Grey. Koerner’s Riding the Open Range, was featured in the Saturday Evening Post.

Credit: FineArt.ha.com

William Koerner (1878-1938), Riding the Range, oil on canvas 30 x 24 in.

Painting of the Day, November 3, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"When I was a little boy and lived in Maine, I read everything about the West I could get my hands on - not dime novels, but everything authentic. I lived the life in prospect. Then I lived it in actuality, living with cowpunchers in Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona - all along the cattle strip. Now that those days are gone, I live it in retrospect and in my pictures." - W. Herbert Dunton

W. Herbert  “Buck” Dunton was a successful illustrator working for Scribner’s, Harper’s, and for Zane Grey before settling in Taos and becoming founding member of the Taos Society of Artists.  While his illustrations are more detailed and representative, his finished easel work is much more stylized.           

Credit: amica.davidrumsey.com

W. Herbert “Buck” Dunton (1878 – 1936), Fall in the Foothills, c. 1933, oil on canvas, 34 x 42 in. Collection of the AMICA Library

Zane Grey’s Illustrators: Lillian Wilhelm Smith

By Donna Poulton

Credit: Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts, by Donna Poulton & Vern Swanson

Zane Grey, the famous novelist, was an avid adventurer and always on the lookout for new material for his enormously popular romantic westerns.  Grey took an expedition to Utah's Rainbow Bridge in 1913.  It was a difficult trip, taking up to five days each way, and the travel over slick rock was perilous.

Rainbow Bridge Expedition 1910. Credit: NPS.gov

Zane Grey with Guide. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Upon seeing the Bridge, Grey wrote, “I saw past the vast jutting wall that had obstructed my view.  A mile beyond, all was bright with the colors of sunset, and spanning the canyon in the graceful shape and beautiful hues of the rainbow was a magnificent natural bridge.”

Visitors Atop Rainbow Bridge. Credit: NPS.gov

Included among the group was Grey’s cousin by marriage, Lillian Wilhelm Smith (1882-1971), a gifted artist, originally from New York City.

Credit: Blue Coyote Gallery

Among the very few white women to have made the dangerous trek by horseback at that time, Smith may well be the first woman artist to have painted the famous Bridge. She was the only woman to ever work as an illustrator for Zane Grey and she went on to illustrate other books.

Oil sketch of Rainbow Bridge by Lilian Wilhelm Smith. Credit: Anthony’s Fine Art

In his book, The Rainbow Trail, Zane Grey’s character ‘Shefford’ was equally moved by the impression of moonlight on the enormous bridge:

Near at hand it [the arch] was too vast a thing for immediate comprehension.  He wanted to ponder on what had formed it—to reflect upon its meaning as to age and force of nature, yet all he could do at each moment was to see.  White stars hung along the dark curved line.  The rim of the arch seemed to shine.  The moon must be up there somewhere.  The far side of the canon was now a blank, black wall.  Over its towering rim showed a pale glow.  It brightened.  The shades in the cañon lightened then a white disk of moon peered over the dark line.  The bridge turned to silver,  and the gloomy, shadowy belt it had cast blanched and vanished.

Credit: exquisitur