W. Herbert "Buck" Dunton (Amer., 1878-1936), "Buckskin Joe", grisaille painting, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 1910, captioned "Copyright 1910 by P. F. Collier and Son" along bottom right edge in the artist's hand

sight: 21 x 33 in., frame: 27 x 38.5 in.

Published: Includes a letter of authenticity from Michael Grauer, and will be listed in his forthcoming Dunton catalogue raisonne 

Provenance: Property from a home in the Alamo Heights neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas; previously displayed in an office in the Milam Building during the 1980s

"In the scene depicted, 'Buckskin Joe' is shown as hunter and guide for an immigrant train that set out from Independence or Westport, Missouri, and 'Joe' led them 'past the perils of Indians and Mormons into California.' (Collier’s Feb. 19, 1910, page 20)." -- from Grauer's letter, a scan of which is included in the lot photographs, along with a hard copy and PDF to accompany the painting

W. Herbert Dunton trained at the Cowles School in Boston and the Art Students League in New York, where he was influenced by fellow artist Ernest Blumenschein, who later invited him to Taos. Dunton spent his youth immersed in outdoor life, sketching and hunting in Maine and working on ranches in Montana, Oregon, and Old Mexico. Dunton rose to prominence as one of America’s leading illustrators, noted for dynamic, dramatic scenes of cowboys, big game, and frontier action, including widely recognized illustrations for Zane Grey novels and Collier's magazine. After opening a summer studio in Taos in 1912 and settling there permanently in 1921, he became a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. Though he received no major formal awards, his career was bolstered significantly by the patronage of Nelda and H.J. Lutcher Stark, whose extensive Depression-era acquisitions formed the largest collection of his work and cemented his legacy as a premier painter of the untamed West.