James Ferdinand McCan (Ireland / Texas, 1869-1925), portrait of Texas rancher Mifflin Kenedy, oil on canvas

sight: 28 x 22 in., frame: 39 x 33 in.

Mifflin Kenedy (American, 1818-1895) established the Kenedy Ranch in 1882 while his friend and business partner Richard King (American, 1824-1885) established the adjoining King Ranch 

James McCan emigrated from Ireland to Texas in the early 1900s, and settled in San Antonio. His work attracted the attention of the King Ranch Family, and he spent two years painting on the ranch and in nearby Corpus Christi. He then spent the last years of his life in Boerne to regain his health, but died shortly thereafter in San Antonio. His Golden Monarch of the West, a large painting of a golden eagle said to be his “masterpiece” was sold to a private collector in 1924, reported for $50,000 (Ralph W. Morrison, owner of the St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio in 1935), and was lent for periods of display at the Municipal Auditorium and St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio--where it still hangs today, in 2025.