Lone Star Art Auction to Spotlight Early 20th-Century Western American Art

In the early 20th century, Western-themed American art was finally being taken seriously. The style– which predominantly features cowboys and Native Americans– had long been considered inferior to European art due to its emphasis on subject over style. However, the new century brought new appreciation for Western American art that celebrated the nostalgia, sweeping vistas, and mythos of the West. The upcoming Lone Star Art Auction, presented on October 28, 2023, shines a spotlight on early 20th-century Western American art. Here are some of the key artists featured in this sale.

Frank Tenney Johnson

A noted painter and illustrator of the American West, Frank Tenney Johnson specialized in painting cowboys bathed in moonlight. Johnson was born on an Iowa ranch in 1874 and fostered a lifelong interest in the American West. He made frequent trips to Colorado, Montana, and California, gaining inspiration for paintings that would later be finished in his New York studio. Many of Johnson’s paintings show solitary cowboys paused or at rest, gazing serenely at the landscape from atop a horse.

Available with Lone Star Art Auction this month is a more active composition by Frank Tenney Johnson. The Lawless Frontier from 1930 is presented with a presale estimate of USD 250,000 to $300,000 (lot #120). This rare daytime painting shows two riders galloping along a ridge. Potentially in conflict, one rider reaches for his holster while the other wields a lasso.

Joseph Henry Sharp

The nation’s growing respect for Western American art in the early 20th century was boosted by the Taos Society of Artists, an artist organization dedicated to promoting works of Western American art. This group was an outgrowth of the Taos art colony of New Mexico and was active from 1915 until the Great Depression hit. Painter Joseph Henry Sharp was one of six founding members of the Taos Society of Artists. Born in Ohio in 1859, Sharp studied art in Cincinnati, Paris, and Munich before journeying to the American West. He fell in love with the landscape and culture of the West, and he specialized in depicting the everyday lives of Native Americans.

The upcoming Lone Star Art Auction will feature Joseph Henry Sharp’s Crow Camp Near Custer Battlefield, Montana, an oil on cedar cigar box lid painting from circa 1908 to 1909 (lot #81). The work is offered with an estimate of $70,000 to $90,000. Sharp likely completed this work while splitting his time between Oklahoma and Taos, New Mexico. Though Sharp was a commercial artist who depended on his art for income, he was also dedicated to documenting a lifestyle and era that was quickly fading from American culture.

LaVerne Nelson Black

Another artist active in Taos, New Mexico was LaVerne Nelson Black, a Wisconsin-born painter who was interested in Native American cultures. He studied under fellow Taos artists Oscar Berninghaus and William Dunton, who pushed him to embrace color and vibrancy when depicting his subjects. These skills served him well as Black completed commissions for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Santa Fe Railway. 

Available in the upcoming Lone Star Art Auction is LaVerne Nelson Black’s Autumn at Taos Pueblo, an oil painting signed in the lower right (lot #84; estimate: $40,000 – $60,000). Executed in bold colors and wide brushstrokes, the piece shows a group of horses and a wagon under a yellow tree. 

The 2023 Lone Star Art Auction will begin at 1:00 PM EDT on October 28, 2023. To find more information and register to bid, visit Bidsquare. Find additional coverage of this sale on Auction Daily.