Western & Contemporary Native American Art

Provenance:

The Artist

J.F. Oberwinder

J.N. Bartfield Galleries, New York, New York

Exhibited:

National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, "The Pulps and the Slicks: The Golden Age of Western Illustration", November 22, 1991 - March 15, 1992

Illustrated:

Luke Short, "Saddle by Starlight" in Collier's Weekly, June 28, 1952

A great illustrator from the golden age of the genre, Donald Teague was born in Brooklyn. He studied with George Bridgman at the Art Students’ League and was encouraged to go into illustration by Dean Cornwell. He became known both for his superb handling of watercolor and for his ability to convey complex scenes and dense, muralistic groups of people. Teague gave up commercial art in 1958 and turned to easel painting, concentrating on Western subjects.  Claudia Meyer, Teague’s biographer, speaks of his landscapes as “painted with the eye of the poet” and his Westerns as “painted with the heart of the dramatist.” In this illustration from a vintage Luke Short novel, a good-hearted, tough, small rancher is pitted against a wealthy land baron with an army of guns, bent on stealing his land. This illustration epitomizes the conflict, depicting a lone man on crutches holding off the black-hatted villain and some of his mercenaries.

-James D. Balestrieri