.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
A life not for the faint of heart, the often dangerous realities of life as an American cowboy are strikingly depicted by Frank Tenney Johnson in the present work, The Stampede. The subject of cattlemen racing against an oncoming storm represents a powerful theme recurring over the last century of Western art, from Frederic Remington’s 1908 The Stampede (Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma) to G. Harvey’s epic 2003 Rawhide and Thunder (Previously in the T. Boone Pickens Collection). In Johnson’s extraordinary painting, the artist places the viewer directly among the chaos, as two brave cowboys attempt to gain control of their herd beneath a violent, swirling sky. A solitary skull at lower left heeds a warning of the perils of rugged frontier life.
Born in Iowa and raised on a farm, Frank Tenney Johnson observed as a child the steady stream of stagecoach and wagon trains moving West by way of the Overland Trail near his home. This early experience directly influenced his interest in Western themes and specifically the portrayal of horses, which became one of his strengths after studying with artist Friedrich Wilhelm Heine and then with Richard Lorenz, member of the Society of Western Artists. A pivotal 1903 commission from Field & Stream magazine enabled Johnson to travel throughout Colorado, where he solidified the heroic cowboy archetype as the primary subject of what would become an esteemed career as one of a very limited number of Western artists accepted into the National Academy.
Harold McCracken writes that Johnson “got an intimate insight and indoctrination into cowboy life and cattle roundups that was probably equal to that of any other artist who undertook to portray these cavaliers of the American West for the benefit of future generations." (The Frank Tenney Johnson Book: A Master Painter of the Old West, Garden City, New York, 1974, p. 64) Indeed, his genuine understanding of the Western experience and earnest desire to record the disappearing frontier imbue his works with a truthful perspective and sensitive mood. While known largely for his unique nocturnes of pensive lone cowboys, Johnson’s subjects are generally celebrated for their honesty over fanfare. For The Stampede, while the artist heightens the sense of drama with its dark, ominous palette and high contrast of light and dark sky, he delivers an authentic representation of the perils of life as a cowboy. Conveying American virtues of hard work and moral purpose, the central figure courageously faces his challenge head-on, accepting that maintaining his livelihood requires exposure to all kinds of dangerous elements, from fierce lightning and rugged terrain to thundering stampedes of startled cattle.
A 1923 critic described the artist’s timeless depictions best: “Johnson knows the West of yesterday and the West of to-day. For him the plains are rich with ghosts of prairie schooners, Indians, pack animals, and all the dim figures of the passing West. Always in his work there is a poetic depth of memory, a thrill of that old and virile West he loved. He paints the West of to-day with the same rich, intangible hint of yesterday in the brilliant strokes of his brush…Magically on his canvas past and present mingle.” (D. Harrington, “Frank Tenney Johnson, Cow-Puncher Artist,” The Outlook, vol. 133, no. 14, April 4, 1923, p. 615)
Born in Iowa and raised on a farm, Frank Tenney Johnson observed as a child the steady stream of stagecoach and wagon trains moving West by way of the Overland Trail near his home. This early experience directly influenced his interest in Western themes and specifically the portrayal of horses, which became one of his strengths after studying with artist Friedrich Wilhelm Heine and then with Richard Lorenz, member of the Society of Western Artists. A pivotal 1903 commission from Field & Stream magazine enabled Johnson to travel throughout Colorado, where he solidified the heroic cowboy archetype as the primary subject of what would become an esteemed career as one of a very limited number of Western artists accepted into the National Academy.
Harold McCracken writes that Johnson “got an intimate insight and indoctrination into cowboy life and cattle roundups that was probably equal to that of any other artist who undertook to portray these cavaliers of the American West for the benefit of future generations." (The Frank Tenney Johnson Book: A Master Painter of the Old West, Garden City, New York, 1974, p. 64) Indeed, his genuine understanding of the Western experience and earnest desire to record the disappearing frontier imbue his works with a truthful perspective and sensitive mood. While known largely for his unique nocturnes of pensive lone cowboys, Johnson’s subjects are generally celebrated for their honesty over fanfare. For The Stampede, while the artist heightens the sense of drama with its dark, ominous palette and high contrast of light and dark sky, he delivers an authentic representation of the perils of life as a cowboy. Conveying American virtues of hard work and moral purpose, the central figure courageously faces his challenge head-on, accepting that maintaining his livelihood requires exposure to all kinds of dangerous elements, from fierce lightning and rugged terrain to thundering stampedes of startled cattle.
A 1923 critic described the artist’s timeless depictions best: “Johnson knows the West of yesterday and the West of to-day. For him the plains are rich with ghosts of prairie schooners, Indians, pack animals, and all the dim figures of the passing West. Always in his work there is a poetic depth of memory, a thrill of that old and virile West he loved. He paints the West of to-day with the same rich, intangible hint of yesterday in the brilliant strokes of his brush…Magically on his canvas past and present mingle.” (D. Harrington, “Frank Tenney Johnson, Cow-Puncher Artist,” The Outlook, vol. 133, no. 14, April 4, 1923, p. 615)