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Lot 162
William Herbert Dunton (1878-1936)
The Day Herder
Price Realised
USD 75,000
More Information
Specialist note
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being prepared by Michael R. Grauer, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Art and Western Heritage, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas.
According to Michael Grauer, after William Herbert Dunton started visiting Taos in about 1912, he shifted from primarily in-studio painting to becoming a fully plein-air artist. Grauer explains, "Between about 1909 and 1918 in both Mexico and the area around Taos, Dunton posed and painted en plein air lone cowboys or Indians or groups of cowboys or Indians, and sometimes vaqueros. There is a series of vertical paintings of lone cowboys--which probably incorporate the same model posed in the same spot in the Taos desert--all done between about 1912 and 1916, and most either 20 by 16 or 16 by 12 inches."
As a result of this stylistic change, Dunton attracted significant interest from critics of the period. For example, Grauer notes, "The New York Herald (1914) reported that 'he paints right out of doors--begins, finishes and even signs his paintings out in the open.' Scribner's (1916) noted that Dunton 'believes in painting direct from nature, and spares himself no trouble to get his effects, setting forth at times with models and half a dozen ponies...to paint them in a wind-storm, with his canvas anchored against the stiff breeze by big boulders.'" (unpublished letter, 2016)
Additionally, in a review of the 1914 Milch Galleries exhibition in which the present work was included, the American Art News critic extolled, "Not since the days when Remington made his reputation as a painter of far Western pictures, has anything been presented of that section of the country giving its atmosphere, feeling and poetry, as do the twelve canvases shown. A native of Maine, the artist early traveled to the Far West in search of distinctive American subjects. In the present display he proves his knowledge of drawing, cleverness of composition and sense of color...'The Day Herder,' 'The Crossing,' and 'Breakfast of the Grizzly Hunters,' are serious, good works." (February 14, 1914, p. 6)
According to Michael Grauer, after William Herbert Dunton started visiting Taos in about 1912, he shifted from primarily in-studio painting to becoming a fully plein-air artist. Grauer explains, "Between about 1909 and 1918 in both Mexico and the area around Taos, Dunton posed and painted en plein air lone cowboys or Indians or groups of cowboys or Indians, and sometimes vaqueros. There is a series of vertical paintings of lone cowboys--which probably incorporate the same model posed in the same spot in the Taos desert--all done between about 1912 and 1916, and most either 20 by 16 or 16 by 12 inches."
As a result of this stylistic change, Dunton attracted significant interest from critics of the period. For example, Grauer notes, "The New York Herald (1914) reported that 'he paints right out of doors--begins, finishes and even signs his paintings out in the open.' Scribner's (1916) noted that Dunton 'believes in painting direct from nature, and spares himself no trouble to get his effects, setting forth at times with models and half a dozen ponies...to paint them in a wind-storm, with his canvas anchored against the stiff breeze by big boulders.'" (unpublished letter, 2016)
Additionally, in a review of the 1914 Milch Galleries exhibition in which the present work was included, the American Art News critic extolled, "Not since the days when Remington made his reputation as a painter of far Western pictures, has anything been presented of that section of the country giving its atmosphere, feeling and poetry, as do the twelve canvases shown. A native of Maine, the artist early traveled to the Far West in search of distinctive American subjects. In the present display he proves his knowledge of drawing, cleverness of composition and sense of color...'The Day Herder,' 'The Crossing,' and 'Breakfast of the Grizzly Hunters,' are serious, good works." (February 14, 1914, p. 6)