Texas-Sized Sale by Lone Star Art Auction Brings Paintings by William Aiken Walker, Frank Tenny Johnson, and Others

Lone Star Art Auction is a Texas-sized auction specializing in the best American, Western, wildlife, sporting, and Texas fine art of the 19th to 21st centuries. Lone Star Art Auction will showcase 218 quality lots in its upcoming sale. This live art event is held annually in Texas and  will take place this year on October 28, 2023. Collectors can view the complete catalog and place bids by visiting Bidsquare.  

Leading the sale is a painting titled The Cotton Plantation by William Aiken Walker (1838 – 1921) (lot #165; estimate: USD 300,000 – $400,000). William Aiken Walker was an American artist best known for his genre paintings of Black American sharecroppers. He painted sharecroppers of the American South in the post-Reconstruction era. The Cotton Plantation is an oil on canvas, signed W Walker in the lower right corner. Fine craquelure is visible under magnification and is likely the reason for restoration. Completed in 1881, this painting is one of the artist’s finest. The Cotton Plantation offers a detailed snapshot of a southern plantation as sharecroppers work the cotton fields.

Capturing the spirit of the Old West is The Lawless Frontier by Frank Tenney Johnson (lot #120; estimate: $250,000 – $300,000). It is a 1930 oil on canvas, signed and stamped on verso. Johnson (1874 – 1939) is considered a master painter of the Old West and a proponent of a specialized moonlight painting technique. He began his career as an illustrator in New York for numerous national magazines and the Western novels of Zane Grey. He was influenced by his artist peers including Frederic Remington and Charles Marion Russell. Johnson eventually got a taste of the West, joining Russell on a sketching expedition to the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana. He began painting cowboys and Native Americans. He concentrated on his easel paintings when they grew more popular than any of his other works. Johnson’s The Lawless Frontier from 1930 is a testament to his remarkable skill as a painter. This rare daytime action scene by the artist is new to the market.

Also available is Proud Men (circa 2000), an oil on board painting by Howard A. Terpning (lot #122; estimate: $30,000 – $50,000). It has been signed “Terpning 2000 CA” by the artist. Best known for his paintings of Native Americans and the West, Howard Terpning (b. 1927) is considered important among American Western artists living today. He is a classically trained illustrator and painter whose realistic paintings are representations of the American West and the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. Proud Men was selected as the front cover artwork for Don Hedgpeth’s book Howard Terpning Spirit of the Plains People, published in 2001. The subjects of the painting were described as proud prairie horsemen with an appetite for honor and the thrill of danger.

Other key lots in the upcoming Lone Star Art Auction include: 

• Enough Till Spring, a 1994 work by G. Harvey (1933 – 2017) (lot #190; estimate: $175,000 – $225,000)
• A bronze sculpture by Charles Schreyvogel (1861 – 1912), titled The Last Drop, from 1903 (lot #79; estimate: $90,000 – $120,000)
• Awaiting Her Beloved, a 2013 work by Kyle Polzin (b. 1974) (lot #188; estimate: $80,000 – $120,000)
• Lakota Treasure by Don Crowley (1926 – 2019) (lot #4; estimate: $3,000 – $5,000)

This upcoming sale by Lone Star Art Auction will be held on October 28, 2023. Live bidding will start at 1:00 PM EDT. Interested collectors may attend live in Dallas or online via Bidsquare.

About Lone Star Art Auction

The Lone Star Art Auction is a Texas-sized auction event specializing in the best American, Western, wildlife, sporting, and Texas fine art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Presented by Great American West and Phil Berkebile, Jr., the Lone Star Art Auction brings buyers, collectors, and sellers of historic and contemporary fine art together in Dallas for an exciting, enjoyable, and highly entertaining event.